Haunted addresses on record in Massachusetts
What Massachusetts requires
Massachusetts law explicitly shields sellers, landlords, and real estate agents from any duty to disclose that a property was the site of a death, felony, or alleged haunting — silence alone can't be sued over. But if a buyer or tenant asks directly, the seller or agent can't lie about it.
Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 93, Section 114 defines a 'psychologically impacted' property and says that fact or even the suspicion of it is not a 'material fact' that has to be disclosed in a sale or lease. The statute names three specific categories: an occupant having had HIV/AIDS or a similar disease not transmissible through normal occupancy; the property being the site of a felony, suicide, or homicide; and the property having been the alleged site of a 'parapsychological or supernatural phenomenon' — i.e., a reported haunting.
There is no death-disclosure window in Massachusetts at all, unlike California's three-year rule under Civil Code section 1710.2. The Massachusetts statute goes further than a time limit — it says no lawsuit, under any statute or common-law theory, can be brought against a seller, landlord, or broker for simply staying silent about a death or haunting on the property.
The statute does not give sellers or agents license to lie: it states it does not authorize 'a misrepresentation of fact or false statement.' In practice, commentary from Massachusetts real estate attorneys reads this as the standard 'ask rule' — no duty to volunteer the information, but a direct, specific question from a buyer should get a truthful answer rather than a false denial.
Massachusetts has no landmark haunted-house court case of its own — nothing like New York's 1991 'Ghostbusters ruling,' Stambovsky v. Ackley, which forced a seller to disclose a haunting reputation she had herself publicized. Massachusetts instead settled the question by statute, making it one of the more seller-favorable stigmatized-property laws in the country.
General information, not legal advice. Laws change and turn on details — for a real decision, talk to a licensed professional in Massachusetts.
The Massachusetts record is waiting
No entries filed from Massachusetts yet. If something happened at an address you know, write it down — you may be the reason the next resident feels less alone at 3 AM.