Opinion – Based on the author’s interpretations and judgments of facts, data and events.
Nicholas Sutton has unsuccessfully tried for 14 years to sell this West Sussex mansion singer Adele once leased, writes Bob Aaron, after it gained a reputation as being haunted.
With just a few words mentioned casually to a famous TV anchor, British pop star Adele has turned a multi-million pound British estate into an unsaleable property that nobody wants because it is believed to be haunted.
It all began in 2012 when Adele signed a six-month lease on Lock House, a grand 10-bedroom mansion in West Sussex, England. Built in 1909 and renovated since, the secluded 32-acre property features a gym, swimming pool, tennis court, and helicopter pad.
Shortly after moving in, the multi-Grammy, Primetime Emmy, Golden Globe and Academy Award winner gave a televised tour of the property to CNN host Anderson Cooper for his CBS show, 60 Minutes. She told him and his audience that it had been a “convent for a little while,” and said, “This bit’s all quite scary, really.”
Although the mega-star did not use the word “haunted,” subsequent media reports used her name in a story about celebrity haunted houses.
Now Nicholas Sutton, its current owner, has claimed that the $10 million complex is unsaleable because Adele’s comment “negatively impacted future marketing efforts and continues to affect the property’s reputation to this day.”
The house is listed on various websites such as https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/143040842#/?channel=RES_BUY
Sutton has been unsuccessfully trying to sell the property for the last 14 years, and has applied to Horsham District Council for permission to divide it into three separate units, plus a separate cottage in the existing garage.
In real estate, houses which have a reputation as being the site of murders, suicides or simply things that go bump in the night are known as tainted or stigmatized. Even the hint of a stigmatized reputation can affect the value and marketability of an otherwise attractive home.
Ontario has hundreds of homes, condominiums and apartments that were the sites of notorious and even grisly crimes. Back in 1996, John Robert Colombo wrote a book called Haunted Toronto. It lists many buildings and private homes which are associated with stories of apparitions, spectres, poltergeists and other unexplained happenings.
One of my favourite stigmatized properties in Toronto is the house at 169 Walmer Rd. It was once owned by Bert Massey, a grandson of Hart Massey who built Massey Hall and the U of T’s Hart House.
On February 8, 1915, 110 years ago this week, Massey was approached by his 18-year-old housemaid Carrie Davies, who was holding her employer’s pistol. Two shots rang out, and within seconds, Massey lay dead on the front steps of the house. (Davies was ultimately acquitted of the crime.)
Would you live in a house with a history like this one, even if the stigmatizing event was more recent? Should Ontario sellers be forced to disclose a home’s history of any stigmatizing events like murder, suicide or haunting?
Under Ontario law, it’s “buyer beware” when it comes to disclosure of a murder, suicide, or even ghostly apparitions.
Veteran realtor Barry Lebow is a local expert and lecturer on stigmatized properties. He has long been in favour of a law requiring disclosure of real estate stigma, although he believes in a time limit on mandatory disclosure.
Do you agree? Money aside, would you buy Lock House?