Should landlord disclose prior tenant death?

September 26, 2023 12:26 PM

[TW] Suicide Prior tenant took their life by hanging five months ago. Property was painted and even saged in the interim. New tenant is about to sign lease. State law doesn’t require disclosure but tenant may learn about this from neighbors. Should the landlord get ahead of this by disclosing and if so how?
posted by Dragonness to Law & Government (18 answers total)

I'd talk about it because some people will be really skeeved. Disclose to anyone who fills out an application. Tragically, a former tenant died by suicide in this apartment.

If you have any religious affiliation, ask a religious officiant to bless the space. Catholics can apply holy water. I am not a believer, but many people are comforted by ritual. When I was a landlord, a tenant used some Wiccan foolishness to harass roommates. I led a decontamination ritual.
posted by theora55 at 12:33 PM on September 26, 2023 [3 favorites]

Ooof, that's a difficult situation. Are you the landlord? Sadly, I reckon the neighbors are likely to tell the new tenants. This is far too recent for it not to be fresh in people's memories, especially if they knew each other or if it was mentioned in any local social media.

Anecdata: 20 years ago my ex and I moved into a new place. We were still unloading the truck when one of our new neighbors came over to introduce herself. After a brief chat, she said, "You KNOW about what happened here, right?" We thought she was talking about the previous owner's partner, who had died at home after a long illness.

But no, she wasn't.

And that was how we found out there had been a murder-suicide in the house in the 1970s.

(In California, you aren't required to disclose a death on the premises if it has been more than five years.)

It felt too long ago to be truly unsettling, and there wasn't much we could do about it anyway. So we saged the house (we knew what rooms things had happened in), and talked out loud to the people who used to live there, and generally just got on with things. But something that happened as recently as five months ago? I think you'll have to disclose the information.
posted by Orkney Vole at 12:44 PM on September 26, 2023 [3 favorites]

If the landlord discloses more than is legally necessary, that can create an expectation (correct or not) that everything potentially relevant to a tenant is being disclosed. It's setting the landlord up for a complaint (again, correct or not) of the form "you disclosed the death, but not xyz."

We live all the time on the bones of the dead. This is no different. If it matters to a tenant, they should ask.
posted by saeculorum at 12:49 PM on September 26, 2023 [28 favorites]

I believe a landlord should disclose everything and tell them.
posted by tiny frying pan at 1:52 PM on September 26, 2023 [4 favorites]

I'm going to be contrarian and say there is no NEED to disclose this. It has zero actual impact on the property. This particular circumstance is very tragic but changes nothing about the actual experience of living in it. People die in apartments and houses all the time. Other horrific things happen in living spaces, which neighbors might talk about - assault, etc, etc. I absolutely guarantee that many people's children sleep soundly in homes in which other children were abused. Probably in the same rooms. We are ignorant of 99% of the specific awfulness of the world; this is no different.

You may do so. It will cause some people to pass on the apartment because they perceive a difference between this property and one that nobody has died by suicide in recently. But this is all about how people feel and has absolutely no impact on the reality of the property or living in it outside of people's heads.
posted by Tomorrowful at 2:10 PM on September 26, 2023 [43 favorites]

Maybe frame it something like, "You'll bring a happier, totally new life to this old place. There was a tragedy here, but your moving in starts a new chapter and will make this an entirely new home."
posted by amtho at 2:34 PM on September 26, 2023 [3 favorites]

I was a landlord and knew that one of the properties I bought had had a death by smoke inhalation two years before I bought it. I never told a tenant.

Like saeculorum said, "We live all the time on the bones of the dead." My mom still lives in the house where my dad died when I was 10.
posted by ITravelMontana at 2:56 PM on September 26, 2023 [5 favorites]

I don't think this is necessary to disclose. It would not phase me if a random neighbor told me about this, but the landlord telling me "please be aware my last tenant committed suicide" just before lease signing would be weird as hell. Extra please do not tell me you saged the apartment, what am I supposed to do with that information?
posted by the primroses were over at 3:00 PM on September 26, 2023 [19 favorites]

If it had happened two or three tenancies previous or a hundred years before, it wouldn't be of much concern to anyone, so I say don't tell. I’d personally rather not know. I'd feel skeeved by anyone who felt compelled to tell me about it afterwards.
posted by brachiopod at 3:11 PM on September 26, 2023

I don’t think it’s necessary to disclose. I would be much more uncomfortable hearing about whatever cleansing rituals were done than hearing about the death itself, if a prospective landlord did disclose. If I heard about this from a neighbor it would not occur to me to think that I was owed a disclosure.
posted by Stacey at 3:12 PM on September 26, 2023

Anytime a person moves into a new place, it's much more likely than not that some very sad and/or violent things, including deaths, have happened in that home or on that land. People who have a preferred ritual for purifying, clearing, or otherwise addressing past events in their new home should do their ritual each time they move. If you're not legally obligated to disclose specifics here, I wouldn't.
posted by theotherdurassister at 3:13 PM on September 26, 2023 [3 favorites]

I think that if this was going to be disclosed, it should have been done much earlier. Since it wasn't, I would say that the landlord shouldn't mention it now and just let the cards fall where they may.
posted by kinddieserzeit at 3:20 PM on September 26, 2023

If it becomes an issue (and you're the landlord) you could always just let the tenant out of their lease with no financial penalties as a good faith gesture.
posted by Larry David Syndrome at 3:47 PM on September 26, 2023 [1 favorite]

I will say this: while I would not necessarily want to live in a place where someone died, this is part of life. We can walk in to a space and feel a vibe if that’s important to us. We can ask around for insight. We can look up police records. Etc.

Many years ago, I lost someone young, who felt like a niece to me, to suicide by hanging. The family kept living in the space for many more years until selling. I’m sure the seller found out before moving in if they asked anyone because it was a big community moment.

Yes, suicide is awful but it does not leave a house uninhabitable. The end is tragic but the whole disclosure thing feels like subconscious shame. And that person’s life and the space’s positive potential is not negated by a death. I have never thought to ask but I’m sure someone who was very concerned— which I understand and respect— would!
posted by smorgasbord at 10:05 PM on September 26, 2023 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thank you all for your thoughtful responses. The fact the hive mind is divided on this confirms it’s not a clearcut issue.
posted by Dragonness at 12:46 AM on September 27, 2023 [1 favorite]

Just about anywhere anyone has lived, that isn't new construction, has involved death.

Death is a part of life.

If a landlord told me there had been a recent suicide in a home, and they'd saged the place, I think my reaction would be pity for the deceased crossed with not being sure why I'm being given that information.

And if a new neighbor charged up to me to inform me what tragedy had happened in my new home, I'd think that person was a gossip and a bit of a ghoul. I'd give them wide berth.
posted by champers at 3:08 AM on September 27, 2023 [2 favorites]

This is a situation that is about how the new occupants of the rental unit are going to feel about its history, and feelings are individual and unpredictable.

I wouldn't disclose. The tenants may never find out about the unit's history, in which case problem averted. If they do find out and are bothered by it, I would discuss their feelings about it in a respectful way and see if we could come to some sort of resolution, reminding them that a lot of buildings of any age have had deaths occur in them at some point, suggesting a ritual of some sort, and if necessary, offering to let them out of their lease without financial penalty.
posted by orange swan at 11:37 AM on September 27, 2023

Lots of people are acting like this is no big deal and anyone who thinks it is is being silly. However, plenty of rational people would not like to live in a place where someone completed suicide only 5 months ago. Sorry, but for many people that is very different than someone dying in the same room a century ago. I would want to know so I had all the info about whether or not to live there. It would be very unfair to make someone move again when they thought they'd found a home, just because you didn't disclose it.
posted by thereader at 1:14 PM on September 27, 2023