Superstitious housebuilders have been told that they can no longer skip the buildings at number 13.
Real estate companies have routinely overlooked the unhappiness number when building streets because homes with that number are believed to be harder to sell.
In fact, it has made non-superstitious buyers reluctant to exchange contracts for such properties, fearing they will have difficulty reselling them.
However, now a group of local authorities in Lincolnshire have banned developers from missing out on new housing developments.
South Holland District Council (SHDC), East Lindsey District Council and Boston Borough Council have discussed this with developers.
Mark Foster, director of Lincoln-based Lindum Homes, said it was still common for planning authorities not to allow the number and developers were still having problems with people not wanting to live at number 13.
A joint street naming and numbering policy document published by councils last month states that number 13 'must be used in the correct order and no penalty should be given for avoiding it'.
The municipality of South Holland has emphasized that this means that there are 'no circumstances in which builders may avoid the use of number 13'.
Superstitious housebuilders have been told that they can no longer skip the buildings at number 13. File image
A joint document published by Lincolnshire councils states that number 13 'must be used in sequence and no penalty should be given for avoiding it'. File image
Mr Foster said another Lincolnshire authority, North Kesteven District Council, would not allow the number to be used unless 'a developer insists'.
In September 2024, property company Rightmove found in a survey that number 13 houses were valued around £5,000 lower than the average house price if there were more than 10 million houses between 1 and 100.
Mr Foster said: “It is quite unusual for a local authority to speak out categorically in that way. Most local governments are the opposite of that.”
An SHDC spokesperson said the use of number 13 on housing projects in the district already existed and the document just turned that “practice into policy.”
'Where objections persist, [they] can be filed in the magistrates' court,” they said.
“The council may deviate from policy if warranted, but will document that decision and the reasons for it.”
Traces of where the superstition began can be found in Christianity, with the 13th guest at the Last Supper – Judas Iscariot – being the disciple who betrayed Jesus.
In Norse mythology, another 13th dinner guest – Loki – tricked one of Odin's sons into killing another son.
The 'unfortunateness' of this number has recently been reinforced in popular culture, such as in the film Friday the 13th, according to Cardiff University lecturer Dr Juliette Wood.
