From Iceland — Mysterious Clicking Sound In House Costs Millions

Mysterious Clicking Sound In House Costs Millions

Published December 22, 2011

A couple who sold a house have been sentenced in court to pay 8 million ISK to a woman who bought it, as the house emits a loud and persistent clicking sound of unknown origin.
Vísir reports that the story begins in Hafnarfjörður 2007. A couple sold their house at the time to a woman for 43 million ISK. A few weeks later, something strange began to happen.
The woman who bought the house would hear a loud clicking sound throughout the night. The sound was so loud, in fact, that she would often be awoken by it. The sound would stop with the start of the day, but by night, it would begin again.
A real estate inspector came to the house in 2008 to investigate. The clicking sound was counted 33 times from dusk to dawn, measuring a loudness of up to 57 decibels. Safe indoor noise levels are placed between 25 and 40 decibels.
The inspector was not able to find the source of the clicking noise, and believes a more thorough investigation to find the cause of the sound would cost. The woman who bought the house says she cannot sleep there, so she took the couple who sold her the house to court. Today, the court found the couple guilty of having knowingly sold a house with a major flaw without disclosing it, and sentenced them to pay 8 million ISK in damages.

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