Law: Murder not a reason to rescind a purchase contract 

A real estate purchase contract cannot be rescinded without further ado if a crime has been committed in the property and the buyer was unaware of this when signing the contract. This was recently decided by the Coburg Regional Court (Coburg Regional Court, judgment dated 06.10.2020, case reference: 11 O 92/20). In this case, a buyer had purchased a house in 2018. The seller had not told her about the double murder that had taken place there in 1998.

The buyer only found out about the crime later and then wanted to cancel the purchase due to fraudulent misrepresentation. However, the Coburg Regional Court dismissed the claim, citing various reasons. On the one hand, a duty to disclose a crime committed can certainly exist when selling a house. However, the double murder was more than 20 years ago and experience has shown that the significance of this for the purchase decision is becoming less and less. Secondly, the defendant (the seller) cannot be proven to have acted fraudulently.

She only bought the house herself in 2004, without knowing about the double murder at the time. Even after finding out about 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 ruling by the Bamberg Higher Regional Court. The purchase contract was not rescinded.

Source: Coburg Regional Court (AZ: 11 O 92/20)/justiz-bayern.de
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