Selling a Haunted House: A Satiric Real Estate Deal Based on the Famous Stambovsky Vs. Ackley Case

If you're one to keep on top of famous haunted house cases (yes, that's you)--you may be aware of a famous one from 1991 that involved a bad sale of a publicly-known haunted house near New York City. This instigated a subsequent court case by the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court that set a new real estate precedent should you ever decide to sell your house if it's haunted. Helen Ackley and her family had lived in this house located in Nyack, NY (near the Hudson River) for years and was already said to be haunted for decades before they moved in. Mrs. Ackley even had a story printed in Reader's Digest in the mid 1970's among other media that told about her family's ghost experiences in the house.

When they decided to sell the house to Jeffrey Stambovsky and his wife in 1991--the Stambovskys didn't get word that the house was haunted. That led to Jeffrey Stambovsky's wife panicking at the notion of being potentially bothered by ghosts in the house and demanded they get their money back. The term "ectoplasmic fraud" was coined--and should have become a catchphrase, but unfortunately didn't. Well, the Ackleys refused to give back the down payment, the Stambovsky's took it to court, and initially lost the first round of the case to the "be careful what you buy" axiom. After an appeal, it went all the way to the New York Supreme Court and ended up having a reverse decision...along with some rare dry humor from one of the judges. In the final ruling--it was proclaimed in the law books that if you have a haunted house and want to sell it to someone...you have to let them know. It's now a part of the "stigmatized property" laws in real estate.