How To Sell A Haunted House In CA: Ghosts, Death And Disclosure

CALIFORNIA — If you buy a house in California, does the seller have to tell you about any other-worldly roommates that might already occupy your new home? It’s complicated.

A 2023 report from Zillow explained that only four states — New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Minnesota — directly address the paranormal in their disclosure laws.

However, California is one of nine states with death disclosure laws, and a seller must tell a buyer if someone died at the home in the past three years in the Golden State, according to the real estate website.

If a buyer asks a seller about other deaths or paranormal activity on the property, the seller is required to tell them the truth, according to a 2023 blog post from Los Angeles real estate attorneys Schorr Law. If the seller does not answer the questions honestly, the buyer must prove that the house is haunted and that its paranormal activity impairs its market value in order to sue for non-disclosure, the law firm said.

The state’s death disclosure laws also explicitly state the owner is not required to disclose if a resident was HIV-positive or died of AIDS complications.