By Markian Melnyk, Realtor

If you find yourself in downtown Baltimore, take a detour to visit Edgar Allan Poe’s grave in Westminster Burial Ground on West Fayette Street. The famous author wrote The Tell-Tale Heart, and other dark stories. In that one the narrator describes murdering an old man with an evil “vulture eye.” After killing him, the narrator dismembers the body and hides it under the floorboards, but when the police come to inquire about a scream heard in the night, the narrator begins to hear a heart beating from below the floor and eventually cracks and confesses to the crime.

In modern real estate lingo, the narrator’s home would be called a “stigmatized” property. That’s a place where a homicide, suicide, accidental death, natural death, or felony has occurred, or a property where an owner or occupant was suspected of having been infected with human immunodeficiency virus or diagnosed with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS).

Sellers and their real estate agents are not required to disclose to a buyer these past circumstances because they are not considered material to the physical condition of the property. In short, Maryland law does not recognize ghosts.

But all agents still owe their clients and customers a duty of honesty. If directly asked by a buyer, an agent should reveal what they know about a property’s history. Plus, there are situations where a crime could have caused actual damage to a property, such as chemical contamination from illegal drug manufacturing. In that case, the contamination would amount to a material latent defect that, if known by the seller, must be disclosed.

Note that Maryland law does not excuse a buyer’s agent from the obligation of disclosure, just sellers and their agents. Buyer’s agents have a duty to represent their buyer’s best interests and should disclose information about a property’s reputation if they have actual knowledge of it. After all, whether a property is stigmatized could affect whether a buyer makes an offer or how much the buyer would be willing to pay for the property.