Creaking floorboards, flickering lights, strange odours and damp cellars - all routine problems you might reasonably expect a property survey to pick up on. But what if the house you were in the process of buying was suddenly found to be haunted?

Incredibly, the following tale is a perfectly true story of events that recently ended up on the desk of the Property Ombudsman.

A couple, Mr & Mrs Thomas, were looking to purchase a large house for their family. Having spotted an old manor house for sale they contacted the vendor’s estate agent to arrange a viewing. During the viewing Mrs Thomas began to feel very ill at ease and felt a creeping sense of dread and foreboding. Turning to the estate agent she asked: “Is this house haunted?” Visibly spooked, the agent curtly replied: “I’ve never been asked that question before”.

As the viewing continued upstairs, the couple approached the master bedroom where Mr Thomas suddenly felt an icy cold breeze across his face. As he turned the door handle and pushed open the door into the bedroom, it quickly slammed back against him and shut with such extreme force that Mr Thomas felt as if someone inside the room had slammed the door against him. The estate agent turned to Mrs Thomas and joked: “it must be that ghost of yours”. Mr Thomas nervously laughed it off and they continued the viewing.

Despite the unsettling events, Mr & Mrs Thomas loved the house so much that they agreed to buy the property and paid a large non-refundable cash deposit to the seller. Several weeks passed by and contracts were due to be exchanged..

However, one afternoon whilst browsing in a local second-hand shop the couple stumbled upon a book about the manor house which they bought. With each page turned, the couple became more and more uneasy about the house as the book spelt out its sinister history. The manor house was over 200 years old, and had been built by a cruel and wealthy shipping merchant whose restless spirit was said to still haunt the house to this very day. Legend had it that his ghost had, on occasions, been encountered in the master bedroom.

As the couple reflected on what had happened during the viewing, a gloomy, sinking feeling set in. Their dream purchase seemed to have turned into a nightmare. Angrily they called the estate agent to ask why he had not disclosed the fact that the house was haunted. The agent responded that he was unaware of the ghost story and had not been informed of any such thing by the present owner. Furthermore he was not of the opinion that ghosts were ‘real’.

Mr & Mrs Thomas withdrew from the purchase the day before contracts were due to exchange and the vendors retained the deposit. The couple subsequently contacted The Property Ombudsman to complain that the estate agent should have answered their question about the haunting during the viewing and demanded the return of their deposit.

The Ombudsman rejected the Thomas’ complaint and said that there was no case for the agent to answer, as it would be impossible for anyone to either prove or disprove the existence of a supernatural presence in the house……..