House for sale doesn't include dead man

A real estate agent showing possible buyers around a Central England house opened a closet only to find the homeowner hanging dead inside. He had apparently hung himself by a belt. From Reuters:

"It was quite a shock," said a spokesman for estate agents Hartleys. "Our agent quickly ushered everyone out, locked the property and called the authorities."

Link (via Fortean Times)

[#1 posted by Mousewrites , February 12, 2008 12:17 PM]

Wow. I saw this exact thing in a movie once. I'd tell you which one, but then people would yell at me for spoiling the ending for them.

[#2 posted by Niteowl , February 12, 2008 12:26 PM]

So, would this be the definition of a 'reluctant seller'?

[#3 posted by Haldor , February 12, 2008 12:42 PM]

Hopefully they can still get back their earnest money.

[#4 posted by insomma , February 12, 2008 12:59 PM]

So,...what, the guy had to have put his house up for sale, left the keys with the agency, and THEN killed himself? It was the owner hanging by the belt, right? yikes.

[#5 posted by Landowner , February 12, 2008 1:02 PM]

Fortunately the buyer was Glen Danzig. He immediately bought the house for it's asking price.

[#6 posted by eggonstilts , February 12, 2008 1:05 PM]

@Mousewrites, the movie you maybe thinking of is American Psycho. There is a scene where a Realtor© is showing an apartment and bodies are stuffed in a closet.

[#7 posted by mappo , February 12, 2008 1:15 PM]

Now that's a professional - salvage the sale first, call the cops second!

[#8 posted by Mousewrites , February 12, 2008 1:23 PM]

@EggOnStilts: Nope, but thank you for playing! Your consolation prize is a lovely set of mandlebrots.

Different movie entirely. In this one, the realitor actually finds the body and has to get the prospective buyers out of the house before they see him.

[#9 posted by sherrold , February 12, 2008 1:39 PM]

Was it a small but adorable Canadian movie?

[#10 posted by Mechalith , February 12, 2008 2:45 PM]

@Mousewrites: hiya!

@Haldor: personally, I'd still buy the place if I'd been planning on it anyway. I'd wager a fairly massive number of people already live in houses someone has died in, they just don't know it.

[#11 posted by Robert , February 12, 2008 3:31 PM]

"You found it!"

[#12 posted by Wareq , February 12, 2008 3:44 PM]

Good job the housing market hasn't slowed down too much there, eh?

[#13 posted by Blackbird , February 12, 2008 4:48 PM]

#10 posted by Mechalith , February 12, 2008 2:45 PM

I'm sure your right that many people have bought homes that previous owners have died in. The difference in this one seems to be that the body was STILL in the house...which is entirely different than someone just having died there and THEN the house was sold.

[#14 posted by jeffy , February 12, 2008 5:03 PM]

@SHERROLD #9, that was my thought too. With Sandra Oh.

[#15 posted by Halloween Jack , February 13, 2008 7:19 AM]

If they'd just baked some cookies in the house beforehand, they still could have made the sale.

[#16 posted by Brainspore , February 13, 2008 8:14 AM]

For me, this story reminded me of the scene in "Beetlejuice" when Geena Davis tries to scare off the new buyers by posing as a dead corpse in the closet.