They Knew the House Was Haunted. They Sold It Anyway.
Holding sellers, agents, and associations accountable for failure to disclose paranormal activity in residential and commercial real estate.
Real estate transactions are governed by disclosure requirements designed to protect buyers from material defects that could affect the value, safety, or habitability of a property. Paranormal activity — including documented hauntings, poltergeist phenomena, spectral manifestations, and unexplained entity presence — constitutes a material condition that sellers and their agents are obligated to disclose. When they fail to do so, buyers are left with properties that are functionally uninhabitable, dramatically diminished in value, and often the source of profound emotional distress. Cordwell, Holloway & Feltner represents buyers, tenants, and property owners who were denied the information they needed to make informed real estate decisions due to deliberate concealment of paranormal conditions.
Haunted property litigation occupies a complex and evolving area of real estate law. While some jurisdictions have enacted specific statutes addressing the disclosure of psychologically impacted properties, the majority of states rely on common-law fraud and misrepresentation doctrines that require careful application to paranormal circumstances. Our attorneys have developed deep expertise in both statutory and common-law frameworks, and we maintain working relationships with paranormal investigators, property inspectors certified in anomalous-activity detection, and academic researchers whose testimony has been admitted in courts across the country.
We understand that clients who come to us with haunted property claims have often been told by other attorneys that their cases are not viable, or that paranormal activity does not constitute a recognized legal harm. This is incorrect. Courts in multiple jurisdictions have recognized that undisclosed hauntings can constitute fraud, negligent misrepresentation, and breach of the implied warranty of habitability. Our firm has been at the forefront of establishing and expanding these legal precedents, and we approach every case with the evidentiary rigor and procedural discipline required to prevail.
You May Qualify If You Have Experienced
Compensation Types
Rescission of sale
Complete unwinding of the real estate transaction, returning the buyer to their pre-purchase financial position, including purchase price and closing costs.
Diminished property value
Recovery of the measurable reduction in fair market value attributable to the property's haunted status, as determined by qualified appraisers.
Relocation costs
Reimbursement for temporary and permanent relocation expenses incurred when a haunted property becomes uninhabitable, including moving costs, temporary housing, and storage fees.
Emotional distress
Compensation for psychological harm suffered as a result of living in or owning an undisclosed haunted property, including treatment costs and non-economic damages.
Property damage
Recovery for physical damage to the structure and personal property caused by paranormal activity, including repairs, replacements, and remediation.
Attorney fees
Recovery of legal costs and attorney fees incurred in pursuing the haunted property claim, where permitted by statute or contract.
Inspection & remediation costs
Reimbursement for paranormal inspection fees, spiritual remediation services, and any other professional assessments or treatments undertaken to address the haunting.
Case Highlights
Our client purchased a historic home in Savannah, Georgia, only to discover that the seller had been aware of persistent paranormal activity for fourteen years prior to the sale. Court-ordered depositions revealed that the seller had consulted three separate paranormal investigation teams, none of whose findings were disclosed to the buyer.
A commercial landlord purchased a mixed-use building from a seller who failed to disclose a documented history of paranormal disturbances in the upper floors. Within eight months, all three tenants had vacated, citing entity encounters and unexplained structural phenomena. The landlord recovered the full diminished value plus lost rental income.
After purchasing a suburban home, our clients experienced repeated poltergeist activity that caused damage to kitchen appliances, interior walls, and plumbing. Their homeowner's insurance denied coverage under a supernatural exclusion clause. We recovered damages from the seller, whose own prior insurance claims documented the same activity years before the sale.
Past results do not guarantee future outcomes. Individual results vary. Settlements listed above are net of attorney fees.
What Our Clients Say
"We bought our home in Savannah's historic district in 2019. The seller told us the house had 'character.' What he did not tell us was that three paranormal investigation teams had documented persistent entity activity in the home over a fourteen-year period. Doors opened on their own. Furniture moved overnight. Our daughter refused to sleep in her room after the first week. Ms. Holloway and her team obtained the seller's own correspondence with paranormal investigators and proved he had concealed a material condition. We were made whole, and we found a home where the only character comes from the architecture."
"When our children started talking about their 'friends' in the upstairs hallway, we assumed they were being imaginative. Then our five-year-old described a woman in a gray dress who told her the house used to be different. A subsequent investigation revealed that the property had been the subject of four documented paranormal complaints filed with the town by three previous owners. The seller disclosed none of this. Ms. Chen-Watkins handled our case with compassion and precision, and the court agreed that our children's safety and our family's peace of mind were not things the seller had the right to gamble with."
"I purchased a three-story mixed-use building as a commercial investment. Within six months, all three tenants had broken their leases and vacated. The second-floor tenant, a CPA, told me she could not work because her files were rearranged every night by unseen hands. The third-floor tenant's employees refused to use the restroom after multiple encounters with what they described as a translucent figure near the stairwell. Ms. Holloway's investigation revealed that the previous owner had experienced identical complaints for years and sold the property without disclosure. We recovered the full diminished value and eighteen months of lost rent."
Attorneys for This Practice
Disclosure requirements for psychologically impacted properties vary significantly by state. Some jurisdictions impose affirmative disclosure obligations; others apply only when the buyer makes a direct inquiry. Contact our office to discuss the specific laws applicable to your property and jurisdiction.