“The House is Haunted” – Surely the Value should be Decreased?

If your own home is ‘haunted’ certainly that will lower the worth of the property? That very query was determined within the 2013 case of Descas & Descas.

That case involved an software property settlement after the breakdown of an 18 12 months marriage. The spouse in that case, in what Justice of the Peace Scarlett labelled a “weird twist”, tried to argue that the matrimonial dwelling was haunted and consequently the worth of the house was detrimentally impacted.

The spouse’s allegations that the home was haunted had been raised, following the appointment of a valuer, Mr P, who was tasked with getting ready a joint valuation of the matrimonial dwelling. In her solicitor’s directions to the valuer, Mr P was requested to advise on the whether or not the truth that the home was haunted effected its worth.

Mr P, valued the home at $750,000. Fairly unsurprisingly, the valuation didn’t mirror any adjustment for the alleged haunting, with Mr P replying to the spouse as follows:

“Exorcism just isn’t certainly one of our many speciality companies and except the ghost was held captive within the room prime which we couldn’t achieve entry it should have been at lunch.”

Unsuprisingly, Justice of the Peace Scarlett didn’t settle for the spouse’s proof in respect of the haunting. It was famous that the spouse had all the time sought to take care of the matrimonial dwelling, nonetheless, she had indicated that she might solely afford to pay $150,000 to purchase out the husband’s curiosity. Accordingly, Justice of the Peace Scarlett made the next findings concerning the haunted home:

“I discovered this account of the alleged haunting to be unbelievable and I’m glad that the declare was fabricated for an ulterior function, particularly, as an try to affect the valuer to return a low valuation of the previous matrimonial dwelling.”

Finally, Justice of the Peace Scarlett held that the matrimonial asset pool must be break up 65:35 in favour of the spouse, and ordered that the husband switch his curiosity within the matrimonial dwelling in consideration for $189,288.77.