teens with legal issues

While few people will openly admit to believing in ghosts, many have experienced strange noises in the night or objects that seem to have moved for no reason. When you first move into a new house, these sensations often increase as you get used to a new environment. But if you come to truly believe that your new house is haunted, is there anything you can do about it?

What Exactly Does a Seller Have to Tell You?

When you buy a home, it's generally expected that the seller says everything that's great about the home, while the buyer is responsible for figuring out everything that's wrong with it. However, a seller must warn a buyer of any information that would affect a reasonable person's decision to buy the home or the amount that they would be willing to pay if they had no reasonable way of learning that information on their own.

So What About Ghosts?

The problem with making a claim over ghosts in court is that you need to prove two legal elements to successfully win a lawsuit against a seller.

The first is damages. You need to be able to prove that something was broken or physically damaged, someone suffered a physical injury, or that someone is suffering from medically-diagnosed mental harm.

The second is causation. Even if you can prove actual damages, you still need that ghosts are to blame. Think about the public perceptions of ghost hunters — few judges are going to be willing to consider them to be expert witnesses that can legally testify on your behalf. If you have no video proof, you probably have no chance at winning.

Try Suing Over Unfinished Business Instead

Even if most people don't believe in ghosts, everyone knows that they supposedly became ghosts because they died suddenly while they still had unfinished business. If you can prove something bad happened, you might be able to win in court.

For example, homes where murders or other violent crimes were committed typically have terrible resale values because no one wants to live there if they know what happened. If you can convince a judge that you were hoodwinked into paying full value for such a home and the seller was responsible for disclosing the bad event, you might be able to win.

To get help with a home you bought based on the seller's misrepresentation or other home purchase issues, contact a local real estate lawyer--like one from Schulze Howard & Cox--today.