These days, chartered surveyor David Pardoe manages estates but, years ago, as an estate agent completing on the sale of a farm that was put on the market after the farmer had died, he was asked to tea by the widow and her son.
“They looked a little shifty and said that they’d kept something from me during the sale – the fact that the place was haunted.”
A sceptic by nature, Pardoe was told that the ghost of the farmer continued to turn on the milking parlour, even though it had been disconnected from the mains, at 3am each morning, just as he had done in life.
“Then his widow announced it wouldn’t be a problem as the ghost would follow them to the next home. I checked a year or so later, and it had.”
If that doesn’t happen, new owners can take matters into their own hands and organise for an exorcism or some alternative spirit cleansing ritual. Schneiderman says that there have been “numerous property sales” that he’s acted on where buyers have had their Feng Shui or Vastu consultant inspect the house in order to clean or purify the energy. It’s actually not that uncommon,” he adds.
Lindsay Cuthill, co-founder of Blue Book, an estate agency, believes buyers should take a sanguine approach to past goings-on.
“It’s important to remember that we are fleeting custodians of our homes, mere caretakers in the grand scheme of time.
“Our homes likely once belonged to others and are destined to shelter future generations. With each new owner comes new life and energy and our homes bear witness to all of the rich tapestry of life, from babies being born to people dying.”
Does a ghost put off a buyer? “Probably not,” says Cuthill. “Those buying a historic property normally know that a spirit is likely part of the package and, after all, not all spirits necessarily have to be bad.”
What about an untoward event? “It just depends on person to person,” says Wells. “I stopped at the gates to one house I was about to view with a client to say that there had been a fire some years before in which the owner had perished. He took the view that every house has had someone die in it and was quite matter of fact about it. Ultimately, it’s important to be upfront.”