Agents who use ‘Price on Application’ or POA in portal and estate agency website listings are contravening consumer protection legislation, the National Trading Standards Estate and Letting Agency Team (NTSELAT) has warned.

Its opinion has been developed in partnership with the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and will be worrying news for the significant number of prime and super-prime agents who regularly use POA in their ads.

NTSELAT’s opinion is that the practice is likely to be misleading as it withholds – or in some cases masks – the asking price from consumers.

A property’s price is information which the average consumer needs in order to make an informed transactional decision, such as to make enquiries about the property, conduct further research or arrange a viewing.

The practice is almost exclusively restricted to high-value properties and, although once very common, is petering out as a practice, For example, out of the 225 properties for sale on Rightmove in Mayfair at the moment, only seven are listed as POA.

Clear position

“I am pleased to be able to set out a clear position that the use of ‘POA’ or ‘price on application’ in property listings is unlawful,” says James Munro, Senior Manager of the NTSELAT team.

“We have considered this issue carefully and I am grateful to colleagues, the CMA and legal experts for their input.

“We hope this clarity will be helpful for property portals and agents as they prepare their listings going forward. This position will now form part of our general industry advice and guidance.”

Barrister Lee Reynolds of Gough Chambers, who is a consumer law expert, also inputted into the advice issued today by NTSELAT and the CMA.

The initiative is part of NTSELAT’s wider efforts to make agents provide more upfront material information to consumers when they are house hunting.

Poor practice

Sean Hooker, Head of Redress at the PRS, says: “We welcome this clear opinion and the clarification that this practice most likely contravenes the law. It has always been our position that this is poor practice and misleading, however it good to see this is specifically highlighted as a breach.

“The fact that portals will play their part in ensuring that it is stamped out by moving towards refusing to list properties where the selling price of the property is not displayed, shows the importance of the work that has and is being done on the disclosure of material information on their platforms.”

Paul Offley (pictured), Compliance Officer at The Guild of Property Professionals, comments: “We appreciate the clarity James Munro has provided regarding POA and the importance of disclosure of material information so that buyers can make an informed choice before proceeding with any property transaction and the benefits this brings to both sellers and buyers.

“We are working closely with our Members to ensure they are ready for when the data fields are requested by property portals.”