Is Your Home a Danger Zone? : Real estate: Few of life’s choices top where you live. But how can you be sure it’s safe before you move in? Better do a little investigating.

Before you move into that sweet little place you’d like to call home, consider the following:

A man was shot dead Sunday night because some killers may have mistaken him for a previous tenant.

The “new” tenant, who had already moved out but was at the house with his 7-year-old daughter to collect some furniture, was shot in the head, execution-style, as his daughter looked on.

Police theorize that the house was formerly inhabited by drug dealers who were on somebody’s hit list. The killers seemed to have no idea that the man they killed was not the one they were looking for, and that he truly did not have the drugs and money they demanded before killing him.

Could it happen to you?

Could you unknowingly buy or rent a place that looks appropriate but has been connected with someone so undesirable that your safety will be at risk?

Or a house with such bad vibes that former residents were chased away by crime or catastrophes?

Or a house in which someone with a terminal disease had lingered for years before dying?

Does the landlord, real estate agent or seller have a legal obligation to tell you if your prospective new home has been the scene of tragic or brutal events?

It depends who you ask.

Brentwood real estate attorney Robert Mayer says the law is on your side in many instances, whether you’re a renter or a buyer.

“If a prior occupant died on the premises within the preceding three years, and the manner of death would materially affect the value and desirability of the property, then the circumstances of death must be disclosed,” Mayer explains.

He adds that if a death took place in a house more than three years ago, the owner, landlord or agent is obligated to mention it only if asked.

So don’t assume you’ll be told. Ask specific questions, he advises.

There are no legal statutes dealing with disclosure of robberies, rapes or illegal businesses that took place at a property, attorneys say.

Case law seems to indicate that such crimes should be disclosed--but only if they would materially affect the desirability of the property, and only if the landlord, owner or real estate agent is specifically asked about them by the prospective buyer or tenant.

Once again, lawyers advise, don’t rely on the owners or their agents to reveal what you need to know.

Before you sign a lease or purchase agreement, get out and talk to neighbors who are taking out the trash, walking dogs or mowing lawns.

Ask specific questions about crime in the area, and about the place you’re interested in: Who lived there, what happened to them, what kind of people they were.

And check with the nearest police station for an update on crime in the neighborhood.

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Steve Sokol, associate general counsel for the California Assn. of Realtors, emphasizes the obligation of landlords, owners and agents to disclose “material facts.”

It’s more likely that a murder would be considered a material fact, Sokol says, than the death of an elderly person who expired in his or her sleep.

But it’s all open to interpretation. And Sokol warns that would-be renters and owners “are obligated to raise issues and do their own homework to determine if the property is suitable in every respect. One of those respects is to find out whether some major notorious crime has been committed” or if a criminal may have lived on the premises.

The point is that you can ask a rental or sales agent all the questions you want. They are obligated to tell you only what they know. And they may later claim they did not know that something or someone horrible was associated with the house you decided to live in.

“God does not descend and download the complete file of notorious properties into real estate agents’ computers,” Sokol says. “An agent can only disclose what he or she is aware of.”

Stephen J. Gross, a Beverly Hills-based real estate attorney, boils it down to the issue of what is material: “That’s the $64,000 question for the courts to determine. But very broadly speaking, case law in California has interpreted that which is material to mean facts or information that would affect a person’s decision as to whether to buy or not to buy a piece of property.”

Gross says his “subjective opinion is that a murder or attempted murder on a property would be material, and should be disclosed.”

But then again, he says, “the agent can only be expected to know what is knowable.”

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In certain situations, it turns out, the unknowable can cause tragedy in an innocent life.

Elaine Young, longtime real estate agent to the stars, says she always tells everything she knows about a house--even if it’s detrimental. “If something occurred decades ago and I know about it, I tell. Just so the client isn’t surprised or upset. Some people are very superstitious,” she says.

Her habit is to “disclose accidents, murders, rapes--even death by natural causes and whether the person died at home or in the hospital. People care about those things,” Young says.

One thing she couldn’t know when she leased a lovely house in Benedict Canyon to actress Sharon Tate in 1969: Charles Manson was on the warpath and may have been angry at the home’s owner, Terry Melcher, over a botched music deal between the two.

“I still don’t know if that’s true or not,” Young says. “But it was a very strong rumor at the time . . . and in my heart I feel Manson came looking for Terry Melcher because he thought he still lived there--and he found Sharon and her friends instead.”

Young says sometimes misfortune increases the value of a house. “I sold O.J. his house . . . and right now I could sell it for twice what it’s worth, he could make an absolute fortune if he wanted to sell it. But I don’t think he’s going to, because he loves it.”

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Fred Sands, founder and president of the sixth largest real estate company in the nation, says ethics and moral integrity must prevail when an agent is trying to rent or sell a property.

“Long before there was a legal obligation to disclose, I felt morally obliged to tell people everything I knew about the houses they were considering. You do not want to put people who trust you into an unsafe situation.”

Sometimes, people refuse to listen. In one instance, Sands recalls, an attorney decided to buy a house in Marina del Rey without hiring a geologist, as Sands had urged him to do.

“There were hillside problems, which we told him about, but he preferred to negotiate $10,000 off the price because of the problems, rather than worrying about the hillside.

“The attorney then sued us because of the hillside. The court found that we had disclosed fully, and that the purchaser was at fault for not conducting sufficient investigation of his own.”

Nowadays, Sands says, there’s a tendency to water down disclosure laws, making them so broad and vague that “it becomes dangerous” for the prospective tenant or buyer.

His advice to people looking for new digs: Call the police station in the neighborhood to which you want to move. Ask about the crime statistics for the area.

“The police are very good about that,” Sands says. “They will tell you what kind of crime happens there and how much of it.”

Sands agrees that “Angelenos should get out of their cars and walk the neighborhoods they’re considering moving into. Approach people, tell them you’re thinking of moving in and ask questions. Most are very cooperative and eager to talk. It’s not the real estate agent’s responsibility to do that,” Sands says, although many do it.

“If a home owner has been robbed three times in a single month and wants to sell the house to get away from the horror, he is not going to tell the broker whom he hopes will sell it for him.

“Sometimes a neighbor tells the broker that the robberies or a rape has occurred. And sometimes the broker really doesn’t want to hear it,” Sands says.

Once they’ve heard it, they have an obligation to disclose it, he says. But do you really want to bet your life that they’ll do the right thing?

Sands says the best way to make sure what’s going on is to do your own legwork and investigation.

“Otherwise, you might have someone pounding on your door in the middle of the night,” and you might not like the purpose of their visit.