Connell’s recently-acquired online-only agent Hatched.co.uk has been reported to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) by a member of the public for touting.

The complainant received a piece of unsolicited direct mail from the company, which commiserated the homeowner on their sale falling through and named their agent, a multi-branch agency part of the Spicer Haart network.

Hatched.co.uk’s letter goes on to ask whether “we could help you find a buyer whilst also saving you £1,000s in the process”.

The complainant objected that the mailing was breach of the ASA’s advertising codes, which state that ‘unsolicited e-mail marketing communications must be obviously identifiable as marketing communications without the need to open them’.

The ASA has put the complaint through its informal resolution process and after being contacted by the advertising watchdog it agreed to withdraw the letters from their marketing.

“We reminded them that their mailings should be clearly labelled as marketing communications and told them not to repeat those claims in the future,” a spokesperson said.

Hatched.co.uk is a member of the The Property Ombudsman (TPO) and the letter is also potentially in breach of TPO rules on canvassing for new business.

These state that member agents should make it clear the ‘potential for two fees where a previous agent has been or is currently instructed. Note that any claim that your performance is better than another agent has to be capable of being substantiated otherwise it could be constructed as a misleading practice under the Consumer Protection Regulations’.

This is not the first time Hatched.co.uk has been reported to the ASA. In 2013 the ASA adjudicated on two complaints about its advertising, only one of which was upheld.