Haunted Flat
How to find out whether a flat is so-called “haunted”
The Estate Agents Ordinance does not require estate agents to provide clients with information on whether a property is “haunted”. Indeed, there is also no legal definition for “haunted flat”. However, if a purchaser asks related questions with the estate agent, the estate agent should try his best to provide the purchaser with related information. According to the Code of Ethics issued by the EAA, estate agents and salespersons should protect and promote the interests of their clients. They should also exercise due care and due diligence in fulfilling their duties.
When asking an agent on whether the property is “haunted”, vague wordings such as “dirty things” or “unusual things” should be avoided. Instead, the purchaser 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 purchaser 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. Agents should truthfully inform the purchaser of the steps taken to conduct the verification and the results obtained.
