Q: Several days after I obtained a listing, the seller left a message on my voice mail explaining that a member of her family had committed suicide in the home several years earlier. She wasn’t sure whether this was something we were required to disclose to a prospective buyer. Before I could return the seller’s call, a cooperating broker told me he had a buyer who was going to submit an offer to purchase later that day. I’m concerned that the seller and I have a legal obligation to disclose the fact that a suicide occurred in the home. Do we? 

A: No. Section 689.25, Florida Statutes, states that “[t]he fact that a property was, or was at any time suspected to have been, the site of a homicide, suicide, or death is not a material fact that must be disclosed in a real estate transaction.”

The statute further provides “[a] cause of action shall not arise against an owner of real property, his or her agent, an agent of a transferee of real property, or a person licensed under Chapter 475 for the failure to disclose to the transferee that the property was or was suspected to have been the site of a homicide, suicide, or death...”