Wow! that’s a good one. In Mass. you have to disclose material defective conditions you know about if asked (i.e. it’s okay to say the house is in good condition, but if someone asks if there’s termite damage you have to report what you know). I don’t know if anyone’s ever argued that a death materially effects the value of their home. Given the age of much of our housing stock, that would rule out the sale of about half the houses in the state.

I sure didn’t have any recourse when it turned out that the apartment I rented in NYC had been occupied by prostitutes. Interesting late-night visitors, needless to say.

When I was a kid, it was pretty common for the locals in Maine to make up stories about various stains and such in an old house to get the city folk intrigued. There was a similar situation when my Wife’s family sold the 100+ year family residence in Idaho. Purchasers were planning on making it a B&B for the Sun Valley crowd and pumped the family for scandals they could use in their brochure. When there weren’t any, they made up a story that the place was a notorious Wild-West bordello.