[Ironside]

Good advice.

This is one of the main reasons I don't do a walk-through haunted house anymore, it has become WAY too big of a risk - the liability is through the roof!

If someone trips and falls down my basement stairs, I don't feel like getting sued and LOSING my house because of it!

Nicest part about doing a yard/garage haunt is that you don't require any kind of permits to have someone walk up your driveway to get candy.

As long as it's not a "true" haunted house in the traditional sense (maze of hallways, etc) in your garage, I doubt you will need any special permits.

People basically just walk in, look around, say "wow" a lot, then take candy and leave.

Nice and simple. :ninja:

 

[Ironside]

It's kind of funny/scary how I went all those years with a full walk-through haunted house in the basement of my parents house without even thinking about all the potential rules I was breaking.

I mean, we always made sure safety was the #1 priority. We would keep a fire extinguisher or two on hand, post lots of safety rules, have actors posted all through-out the haunt with flashlights just in case, I would even follow EVERY SINGLE group through to keep an eye on things (in costume of course) with only 1 group of 4-5 people allowed in at a time, PERIOD.

I suppose we must have been lucky NOT to have been inspected. Maybe because we were raising money for crime stoppers, nobody wanted to complain (good cause, plus run by cops).

Come to think about it though, it was awfully dark in the haunt... no way of turning on emergency lights and if you don't know where you are it would take a few extra seconds to get to the exit.

All the more reason I dont want to take on that headache at my own house.

Now that i'm a home-owner myself, I think "wow, my mom was NUTS to let us do this in her house and take on the risk"

I find that, if you want to truly go pro, there are too many hoops to jump through and there simply isn't enough money to be made in haunted houses to justify the cost it would take to run (and I HATE haunted houses that charge UN-GODLY amounts like $15-$20 person) when you consider that you're only IN there maybe 10 minutes (if that).

Besides, the main reason I would want to build a haunt in the first place is for FUN, not as a business venture.

Ah well, good thing I took LOTS of pictures.