Pa. Homeowner Sues Seller Over Home's Bloody Past

abc/yahoo ^ | January 28, 2013 | SUSANNA KIM

[lowbridge]

A Pennsylvania woman has appealed to the state Supreme Court in her suit against a home seller and real estate agent who failed to disclose that a murder-suicide had taken place in the home she purchased.

When Janet Milliken, 59, moved from California after her husband died, she had hoped to start a new life with her two teenage children in Pennsylvania near her family.

She bought a home in Thornton, Pa., for $610,000 in June 2007. She learned a few weeks after she moved in from a next-door neighbor that a murder-suicide had occurred the year before in her home.

She sued the seller and the real estate agent for fraud and misrepresentation, saying they made a "deliberate choice not to disclose the home's recent past," according to a court document.

The trial judge granted summary judgment in favor of the defendants, saying state law does not require agents to disclose such events.

Then in December 2012, a panel of the state appeals court affirmed that decision, though with a nearly split decision.

[morphing libertarian]

Cal requires death disclosure for past five years prior to sale.

However, cannot disclose aids as cause.

[outofsalt]

JR,
I suspect it will be the kitchen or the computer room for you. God willing.., I vote the kitchen.

[JRandomFreeper]

My future use coffin is stored on a top shelf in the shop, and it's full of ham radio antenna stuff.

When I got hurt so bad in 2009, the kids took it down. They didn't dust it, didn't put it back up when I lived through it... They complained that it didn't have handles.

I told 'em that I'm a PITA now, I expect I'll be a PITA when I'm dead. ;)

/johnny

[Figment]

” BTW, I sleep just fine on a bed where two people died in their sleep. I’m hoping for the same luck.”

Let’s hope you’re not driving at the time

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

Forgot about the 3 year thing. In Ca. you don’t have to disclose if the person died of AIDS. Isn’t that special.

[tumblindice]

That’s what I thought too but apparently not in PA.

http://readingeagle.com/mobile/article.aspx?id=443373

I blame the Amish.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

You got it. Is it 3 or 5 years for disclosure in Ca ?

[morphing libertarian]

What I want disclosed is if a witness in a capital or life trial lived in the house.

[morphing libertarian]

I’d have to pull the form. Not nearby

[Norm Lenhart]

I often tell my daughter that my revenge for her terrible twos will occur upon onset of becoming old and feeble. And I have a lot to be vengeful for....

It should be the goal of every parent to become a burden on their children. Just as payback ;)

[JRandomFreeper]

Let’s hope you’re not driving at the time

If I die in bed while asleep, AND driving.... That will be my penultimate party weekend, I suppose.

Something to aspire to I guess.

/johnny

[Figment]

Previous resident of my house went postal at his wifes place of employment, killed her plus two others, wounded two more. Got the place at a bargain. Hell, it didn’t happen here

[ALASKA]

I thought you had to disclose deaths for the life of the house in Alaska. I owned a house on the Hillside in Anchorage where a kid killed his dad and step-mom. Didn’t bother me at all. Moved in in mid-Dec., sat in the room where the father died and watched on TV as two body bags were taken out my front door on the annual news review on Dec. 31...

[JRandomFreeper]

During my contracting engineering years when I was single, I accidentally rented a 3 bedroom house with a big yard in a marginal neighborhood.

Cool big house. Plenty of room for me and the dog and my artwork, the place looked like an art-house.

After about the 20th time that someone came looking for 'Maurice' at 0300 and banging on the door, with me answering with a pistol in one hand and the dog leash on the other.... I asked a cop at about 0330.

He told me I had moved into a former crack house.

I never called the cops again. I took care of the situation. ;)

/johnny

[Fightin Whitey]

Agreed. Perfect return.

[Figment]

I’ll go out on a limb and guess AIDS

[terycarl]

Depending on the state, real estate agents are required by law to disclose this.

I hope the vast majority are not. What difference could it possibly make????My last house was built in 1894....who cares what happened in it????it was a great bargain and I made a bunch on it when I sold it....30 years after I bought it!!

[peggybac]

I bought my older home from a Episcopalian priest and his wife and young child. He had already relocated to another state but the wife said he had blessed the house before he left. I thought that was such an awesome gesture.

[AZHSer]

Some states include deaths (whether natural, murder or suicide) in the mandatory reporting laws and some don't. As long as any damage had been repaired and it isn't a notorious case with lots of looky-loos stopping by it shouldn't matter. In Arizona you don't have to disclose natural or suicide deaths. Don't know about murders. It wouldn't bother me either way. If I like a house, I like it. Kinda sounds like someone just wants out of their mortgage.

[HiTech RedNeck]

It logically would, but especially now that such a big stink has been made out of it. On the other hand, someone new-age and/or ghoulish minded might want it. If I were the owners I would try to make lemonade out of the notorious lemon.