A real estate purchase contract cannot be rescinded without further ado if a crime has occurred in the property and the buyer did not know about it at the time of signing. This was recently decided by the Regional Court of Coburg (LG Coburg, judgment of 06.10.2020, file number: 11 O 92/20). In the case at hand, a buyer had purchased a house in 2018. The seller had not told her about the double murder that had taken place in the house in 1998.
The buyer only learned of the crime later and then wanted to rescind the purchase on the grounds of fraudulent misrepresentation. However, the Regional Court of Coburg dismissed the claim, citing various reasons. On the one hand, a duty to inform about a committed crime can certainly exist when selling a house. The double murder was however more than 20 years ago and the meaning of this for the purchase decision becomes from experience ever smaller. Secondly, the defendant (the seller) cannot be proven to have been fraudulently deceived.
She bought the house herself only in 2004, without knowing about the double murder at that time. Even after she learned of the crime, she continued to live in the house for years. The plaintiff withdrew her appeal against the judgment of the Coburg Regional Court following a reference by the Bamberg Higher Regional Court. The purchase contract was not reversed.
Source: LG Coburg (AZ: 11 O 92/20)/justiz-bayern.de
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