The safest protection against an unwanted ghost remains an old-fashioned one: ask before buying — and get the answer in writing, Bob Aaron writes.
The scariest thing in a haunted house may be the agreement of purchase and sale.
On Halloween, ghosts are supposed to disappear when the lights come on. Real estate problems do not.
A buyer can inspect the roof, test the furnace, check the wiring and order a title search. None of those investigations will reveal whether someone was murdered in the bedroom, an incident of fatal self-harm took place in the basement — or neighbours have spent years whispering about a ghost on the staircase.
Those are examples of what the industry calls a “stigmatized” property: a home whose value or desirability may be affected by something psychological or historical rather than by a physical defect.
Mackenzie House at 82 Bond Street is one of Toronto’s best-known reputedly haunted homes. Now a city museum, the restored 1858 townhouse was the final residence of William Lyon Mackenzie — Toronto’s first mayor, a newspaper publisher and the leader of the 1837 rebellion.
Reported phenomena include an apparition resembling Mackenzie on the upper floors, a long-haired female figure on the second and third floors, unexplained footsteps and cold spots. One of the most famous stories: the basement printing press has seemingly started on its own.
The city owns the house today, so no one is negotiating to buy it. But it raises a very modern question: if a property has a reputation for ghosts, murder or other disturbing history, does an Ontario seller have to tell the buyer?
The answer is: not automatically.
The Real Estate Council of Ontario (RECO) defines stigma as a non-physical, intangible attribute that may trigger an emotional or psychological reaction in a prospective buyer — deaths, criminal activity, notorious former occupants, reported hauntings. Whether any of those matter depends entirely on the individual.
A murder 20 years ago may be a deal-breaker for one family and an interesting footnote to another. A reported haunting could send one buyer running for the door while another would happily ask whether the ghost might contribute to the mortgage payments.
Ontario legislation does not expressly address stigma. RECO does not require agents to disclose every dark chapter in a property’s history. Instead, it places the burden on buyers: those with concerns should raise them before signing an offer and obtain written representations where appropriate.
A buyer who would never purchase a house where a murder or alleged paranormal activity has occurred should say so before the offer is signed — and put the protection into the agreement.
A typical protective clause might require the seller to warrant that the property has not been the scene of a murder and has not been publicly identified as haunted.
There is one investigation that costs nothing: talk to the neighbours. They often know things that never appear in an MLS listing, building inspection or title search.
Years ago, I acted for the buyer of a Toronto condominium where the agreement disclosed that the former owner had been murdered in the unit. I asked my client whether sleeping in the same bedroom troubled him. “Not in the slightest,” he said.
That exchange captures the real legal problem with stigma. A cracked foundation is a cracked foundation for everybody. A ghost is not.
This Halloween, buyers worried about the paranormal should remember that Ontario law offers far stronger protection against termites, mould and defective wiring than against murder, mayhem and things that go bump in the night.
The safest protection against an unwanted ghost remains an old-fashioned one: ask before buying — and get the answer in writing.