Indopedia All Things Marijuana
I live in a one-family house adjacent to the house of a family whose son was a serial killer 25 years ago. He was 20 at the time and killed two people. He was recently released and now lives there. My son will inherit our house after us and plans to live elsewhere closer to work.
He wonders if he is morally obliged to inform prospective buyers about the neighbor’s history. Name Withheld
Legal requirements vary from place to place, but morally speaking, sellers should either disclose adverse information about the physical condition of what they’re selling or issue a disclaimer that they’re selling the property “as is.” The general principle of caveat emptor — let the buyer beware — can make sense for the sorts of facts that responsible buyers would find out for themselves. By the same token, sellers ought to report problems that an inspection isn’t likely to turn up. In those cases (involving so-called latent defects), a disclaimer doesn’t suffice. There may be no physical evidence that your house has a tendency to flood, owing to your assiduous rehab work. But you’d better come clean about it. And the same goes for off-site conditions: You should tell…
