Legally Haunted!? How To Carefully Navigate Selling a Ghost-Inhabited Home (12-07-25)

In this episode, host Phil Tower speaks with Cooley Law School Professors Mark Dotson and Jim Hicks.

Legal experts Dotson and Hicks joined us for a most unusual but relevant conversation they called, “So You Think Your House is Haunted?

The professors advised that before listing your home that you feel may be haunted, you should first consult a legal expert.
Disclosing a home’s paranormal activity when it is time to sell varies by state.

Cooley Professors Mark Dotson and Jim Hicks noted that local and state laws may affect sales of homes that individuals believe to be “haunted,” including the famous New York case, Stambovsky v. Ackley, which is the most famous or notorious case involving the disclosures of paranormal activity during the sale of a home.

Under Stambovsky, when a homeowner tells others their home is haunted, they would have to disclose this information. If a home has a reputation or is known as a haunted house, it will need to be disclosed. The house in the Stambovsky case had both the reputation and media coverage about it being haunted, to required that it be disclosed.

The "Legally Haunted House

Cooley Law Online