Last year in Florida, the new owners of a home were shocked to learn from some of their neighbours that the home they had purchased had been the scene of multiple murders and suicide.
Florida law allows real estate companies not to disclose information about a house if such details would tend to “stigmatize” the property.
In the U.S. only half of the states have disclosure laws, Florida not being one of them.
Barry Lebow, a Toronto educator and real estate appraiser said, ”Quebec has disclosure laws, (about disclosing stigmatized information on properties) while to the best of my knowledge the rest of the country is a free-for-all.”
Lebow has called on Queen’s Park to enact a law requiring a vendor ( home seller) to disclose events that could stigmatize the property.
The province of Ontario and the Federal Government have enacted many new laws to protect prospective buyers when buying a home. In this case however, in Ontario it is still “buyers beware.”
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Disclosing events that might hamper the sale event is something people don`t like. Everyone who wants to sell wants to sell no matter what. But this is something about morale. I say that a good agent can help sell anything. The murder and suicide info is funny, but it`s not like the new owners will get killed too, unless you believe in such coincidence. I think honesty can go much further. As a real estate agent in Toronto when it comes to my clients, I like them to tell me everything they can and not hold anything. It`s just the right thing to do.
I think that is terrible that we have to have laws to tell people to do the correct and moral choice in disclosing any deaths, murders or violence pertaining to the property. In my community there was a brutal series of events carried out on a little ten year old girl that resulted in her death. The house still stands, with new owners (from out of town) living there. What is the ‘right’ thing to happen to these physical reminders of human misconduct? I don’t know, but I agree with the realtor from Toronto, honesty is the best policy.
Hi Frances – Thank you for stopping by our blog and leaving your comments. This is one of those very sensitive issues where opinions are as diverse as those affected by it. Except for the province of Quebec, we in Canada are not required to disclose this type of information to the new owners. This is either a good or bad thing depending on whether you are the seller or the buyer.
Our goal is to provide the viewers with information not usually available in real estate websites.
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