For sale: four-bedder complete with previous owners

http://www.theguardian.com/money/blog/2014/jan/10/for-sale-four-bedder-previous-owners-buried-garden

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Most people expect the previous owners to move out when they buy a home, but for the purchasers of this four-bedroom terrace in Teddington they won't be going anywhere in a hurry.

After listing some details about the £650,000 house's history and some internal specifications, the estate agent's particulars note: "The rear garden measures approximately 50ft in depth and has significant width. It is important to note that the previous owners' last wishes were to be buried in this garden, which is where both currently rest."

Richard Porter of Curchods, the agents selling the property, admits it is slightly unusual. "We have 18 offices and when we first started dealing with the sale I asked if any of them had seen anything similar. The answer was a unanimous 'no'."

The house went on the market on Monday, and Porter says the reponse from would-be buyers has been suprisingly positive. As the pictures show it is a serious project rather than a "doer-upper", and Porter expects it to go to a developer. The burial was legal, but if the buyers want to extend the house there is the option of an exhumation, at a cost of about £7,000.

Porter says there are some buyers who will be put off. "You do get people who aren't prepared to live by a church or a graveyard anyway," he says. "But most of the most populated parts of the country are built on places where people have been buried."

Would you happily live in a home where you knew people were buried in the garden, or would your reservations be too grave?

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