Practical tips about the top ten thematic topics that smart consumers should pay attention to during property transactions or appointing estate agents.
About “Haunted Flat”
The Estate Agents Ordinance does not require estate agents to provide clients with information on whether a property is “haunted”. There is also no legal definition for “haunted flat”. However, if a buyer asks related question to the estate agent, the estate agent should try his best to provide the buyer with related information.
When asking an agent on whether the property is “haunted”, vague wordings such as “dirty things” or “unusual things” should be avoided. Instead, buyer should ask specific questions, for example, “have there been any unnatural deaths, such as suicide or homicide in the property or in other flats on the same floor?”
The buyer may also try to verify whether the property is regarded as a “haunted flat” from other sources, including land search records, the property valuation by a bank, records of the property management office, and the Internet.
If an estate agent does not carry out reasonable and practicable steps to check whether any death incident had occurred in a property after being asked by a client, he may be in breach of the Code of Ethics issued by the EAA.