The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA)  has ruled that a Pegasus Home’s advert for retirement properties were misleading and featured difficult-to-find terms and conditions.

The advert, which appeared in a national newspaper, included text that stated, “Try before you buy with Pegasus Rent-to-Buy Experience the joy of a new Pegasus later living home, without the wait”.

It added, “Once you’re ready Purchase within 12 months and get 9 months [sic] rent back* or Receive 5% off the asking price”.

Very small text

To be eligible for the refund, consumers had to have started their rental tenancy by 30 June 2024.

The ASA said it considered that the wording for this appeared in very small text in the bottom right-hand corner of the ad and could easily be overlooked. Pegasus was also criticised for the unclear and difficult-to-find full terms and conditions for the offer.

The ad must not appear again.”

Although the offences were more confusing than misleading, the ASA thought it serious enough to take it to adjudication and the case offers a warning to the wider property industry over how they handle small print.

After it upheld the complaint, the ASA said: “The ad must not appear again in the form complained of. We told Pegasus Homes Ltd to ensure that their future promotions communicated all applicable significant conditions or information, including a prominent closing date, where the omission of such information was likely to mislead consumers.”

Comment from Pegasus Homes:

“We respect the ASA’s decision and a number of actions have been taken immediately to ensure this doesn’t happen again.

“Whilst we are disappointed with this decision, we would never want to mislead or misinform our valued customers and so we are taking this matter very seriously. Since these points were brought to our attention, we have undertaken extensive training from the ASA on the technicalities of the CAP Code, we have created a new and improved web page that has all of the terms and conditions for every promotion clearly detailed and a QR code on every advert directing customers to this, as well as ensuring that the message of our adverts are clear and all terms are clearly stated.

“We apologise for any confusion our marketing materials may have had on our customers or the general public, we always strive to be as transparent as possible to demonstrate the clear benefits that living within our communities brings our residents.”