Your dream home might be haunted — and in these states, sellers don’t have to tell you

Thinking of buying a house? You mightiness want to cheque if it comes pinch immoderate spooky roommates.

As Halloween approaches, Zillow’s caller state-by-state analysis reveals a spine-chilling reality: In astir of nan US, sellers are nether nary responsibility to disclose if their spot has a haunted past.

Only New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Minnesota person ineligible provisions astir haunted location disclosures.

In New York, pending deals for haunted houses tin virtually vanish. The celebrated 1991 New York lawsuit of Stambovsky v. Ackley — known arsenic nan “Ghostbusters ruling” — group nan tone.

In that case, nan tribunal sided pinch a purchaser who unknowingly bought a location successful Nyack that was said to beryllium haunted. The seller had openly boasted of nan home’s poltergeist organization but grounded to mention it during nan sale, starring nan tribunal to let nan purchaser to rescind.

“If a seller has created and perpetuated a conception that nan location is haunted, specified accusation must beryllium disclosed,” Katherin Valdez-Lazo, a existent property lawyer pinch Vishnick McGovern Milizio LLP, told The Post. “But a specified suspicion of a shade does not trigger nan disclosure requirement.”

Valdez-Lazo expanded connected nan case, saying, “In Stambovsky v. Ackley, nan tribunal held that if a information has been created by a seller that ‘materially impairs nan worth of nan statement and is peculiarly wrong nan knowledge of nan seller aliases improbable to beryllium discovered by a prudent purchaser exercising owed care,’ specified information must beryllium disclosed.”

The seller successful nan lawsuit had publicized her haunted location successful some section and nationalist media, but nan buyer, caller to nan area, had nary idea.

“The tribunal sided pinch nan purchaser, ruling that nan statement could beryllium rescinded because nan location was legally haunted,” Valdez-Lazo added. “The seller owed nan purchaser nan work to disclose accusation regarding nan haunting to debar taking advantage of nan buyer’s ignorance.”

Neighboring New Jersey has a different policy. If a purchaser asks astir immoderate supernatural presence, nan seller must reply truthfully. Otherwise, they’re free to support immoderate ghostly specifications a secret.

But that’s much than astir states offer, said Paul Koenigsberg of Koenigsberg & Associates.

“Everything astir this taxable is underpinned by nan precedent group by Stambovsky v. Ackley,” he said. “Although this is often cited arsenic an illustration that a seller tin beryllium held liable for not disclosing that a spot is ‘haunted,’ it’s often mislaid to galore that this was specifically because nan seller publically announced nan truth beforehand but grounded to disclose it during nan sale.”

“Most group expect that if you are buying a location wherever a execution has occurred, you will get a deal,” Koenigsberg said.

“I person had galore clients locomotion distant from what different would beryllium their dream location because location was a execution successful nan location aliases a caller death.”

But for those undeterred by a home’s morbid history, these “murder houses” tin travel astatine a bargain.

Mortgage lender Jennifer Beeston, based successful Florida, agreed, noting that buyers could leverage this for a discount.

“If nan truth nan location had a homicide successful it does not fuss you and you expect to unrecorded location for 10-plus years, it tin beryllium a awesome opportunity to get a deal,” she told The Post.

In California, deaths connected nan spot must beryllium disclosed if they occurred wrong nan past 3 years, while successful Alaska, it’s 1 year. But successful states for illustration Texas, sellers tin support immoderate grisly secrets to themselves forever.

“The doctrine of caveat emptor (‘buyer beware’) warns buyers to ever inspect nan premises earlier purchasing,” Valdez-Lazo said.

So, if you’re successful nan marketplace for a “stigmatized property,” it’s worthy asking nan reliable questions — because, arsenic nan rule stands, sellers don’t person to unpaid thing supernatural. Then again, who knows what really happens successful nan afterlife?

“You don’t guidelines a shade of a chance successful discovering whether a location is haunted conscionable by inspecting it. Some ghosts whitethorn simply take not to coming themselves,” quipped Valdez-Lazo.