I was recently wondering what the disclosure laws in Alberta were about haunted houses. This really took me down a rabbit hole. I found a list of Haunted Houses in Alberta but it was not exhaustive. On the Peace River county tourism website, there are haunted places in Peace which were not mentioned in Wikipedia. How would you find out if a house is haunted?
I remembered an inspection tool called a GQ EMF-390, used for determining if you’re too close to a wifi router, finding leaky microwaves, or items in your home that produce a lot of harmful EMF (like wireless keyboards). This product also claims it can detect ghosts, but it’s set off by something as unnoticeable as an incoming text message. You can buy EMF shielding paint, if you want to be completely protected. The problem is your cell phone won’t work in a room covered in shielding paint. It didn’t seem like there was any way to actually detect a ghost, despite several popular ghost hunting shows. Personally I would never try to sell ghost inspection services or claim any inspection tool is capable of finding a ghost during a presale inspection.
After further reading, I found out haunted houses fall under the category of stigmatized properties. The most comprehensive website I found was housecreep.com, which had over 850 stigmatized properties in Alberta. These range from deaths, homicides, drug house to PARANORMAL activity.
Are Sellers Required to Disclose?
According to the Alberta Real Estate Council, sellers are NOT required to disclose this information. You or your real estate agent can ask about stigmas, and the answer you get should be truthful. However, the seller may choose not to say anything. In this case, you would have to decide if you were comfortable proceeding with the transaction. Anything from a haunting, to a violent crime to a drug operation could have happened in the house.
Marijuana Grow Ops & Meth Houses
There were a lot of marijuana grow operations and meth houses listed on house creep. I have taken additional training from InterNACHI to recognize former meth labs the hazards associated with them. These types of properties often require remediation and risk adverse health consequences if left untreated, especially for children. This is one of the many reason why you should get a home inspection.
