Flat with horror past is up for rent: would you live there?
A flat in the West End of Glasgow is on the rental market for £675 a month. On first glance it looks like a newly-decorated three-bedroom flat with plenty of space, and decent transport links to the city centre. It's not going to win any beauty competitions, but that's reflected in the reasonable rental price. The only problem with the flat is that earlier this year it was rented by a murderer.
The previous tenant was Alexander Pacteau, a 21-year-old, who in April murdered popular 24-year-old student Karen Buckley in his car. He took her body back to his flat and then tried to dispose of it in the bath using caustic soda. When that failed, he hid her body on a nearby farm. Pacteau was sentenced to life in prison - with a minimum of 23 years - but is currently appealing his sentence.
There's no mention of any of this on the Central Letting Services property listing, and there's no obligation for them to bring it up.
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Horrors
It's hardly surprising that the owner is not keen to draw attention to the property's past. Homes that have been involved in horrible crimes tend to have a tough time finding people who want to live there. The Muswell Hill flat where serial killer Dennis Nilsen famously tried to dispose of bodies by dismembering them and flushing them down the drains, has been on the market twice recently, and had a tough time selling in both cases.
The first time it was on the market for 18 months before going to auction and selling for just £250,000 - £100,000 less than the usual price for a property of that size in the area. At that point the agent advised potential buyers to read up on the history of the property before buying.
The buyer then renovated the property, and put it back on the market with no mention of the property's history, hoping to make a quick profit. Unfortunately for them, news got out, and it took the best part of two years to sell - for just £300,000.
The experts say that when a property has horrors in its past, it will almost always affect the asking price: people trying to sell up will see the value drop by at least a third. Over time, in most cases, the notoriety of the murder will fade, and people will forget the associations with the property, so the price will not always be affected forever. They therefore advise anyone trying to offload a property with a terrible past to rent it out for a few years, until the crime is less well remembered.
How easy it will be for the owner of this Glasgow to find tenants, however, remains to be seen.
But what do you think? Would you be concerned about a property's history? Let us know in the comments.
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