January 12, 2016
For curious renters and buyers wondering about the dark history of their potential or current homes, one website says they've got the answer.
The website, aptly titled DiedInHouse.com, says for a fee of $12 it will show you if anyone passed away in your home at any valid U.S. address.
RELATED STORY: Pa. couple struggles to sell 'Silence of the Lambs' house
The Independent reports that the site, launched in 2013, uses records that date back to after the 1980s, but its creator is trying to add reported deaths from further back.
The site's owner and founder, software engineer Roy Condrey, told the news outlet he created the website after finding out someone had died in his home before buying it:
"I assumed it was part of the disclosure process," he added, "but unfortunately found out that it was not. I discovered that most states do not have any laws to disclose a death occurrence in a property no matter how it occurred (murder, suicide, accident, illness or natural).
"What I also discovered is that there is not a single place to go and that the research is very time consuming."
Condrey says he learned 4.5 million homes in the country had recorded deaths inside while creating the website, according to Forbes.
A search of a Philadelphia address brings you to a screen that gives the option of paying the $12 to find out if anyone died in your home, and gives some statistics on housing in the state of Pennsylvania:
Pennsylvania law does not define death in the home to be "material fact"; therefore it is not required to be disclosed.
• PA has a population of roughly 12,787,209 people
• There are roughly 5,590,373 housing units in PA
• 88 percent of PA residents live in the same house with others
• The average household in PA consists of two residents
• There were 1,647 suicides reported in PA in 2012
The site also offers to tell you if any meth labs or fires were ever reported in your home.
According to a 2013 CNN Money report, millions of Americans live in homes that were formerly the sites of meth labs and are contaminated with the drug's poisonous residue.
If you want to know a chilling detail about your home (and are willing to dish out $12), check out DiedInHome.com.
