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ASA investigates agent over number of homes sold

Flyer published by Leicestershire sales and letting agent is reported to watchdog by Trading Standards

Nigel Lewis

asaA recent complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has highlighted the perils for agents of incorrectly using sales data taken from Rightmove’s Intel tool.

The case involves an estate agent in Leicestershire who was reported to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for using a ‘misleading’ leaflet that used Rightmove data to claim that it had sold six properties in a specific postcode.

Sales and letting agent CHQ Properties, which is based in the town of Shepshed just outside Loughborough and was set up two years ago, came to the attention of the Leicestershire County Council Trading Standards Services after it used a flyer distributed to homes in the LE11 central Loughborough postcode that included the claim ‘after selling six properties last week surely the best way of selling your property is with us’.

Within its complaint to the ASA, CHQ Properties was challenged on whether it had really sold that number of properties in LE11 between 27 October and 2 November last year, as claimed.

Trading Standards believed the flyer was misleading because it did not make clear which postcodes were included in the comparison, and that CHQ had not sold any properties in LE11 during that period.

CHQ was told that in future it must provide more details about the data used when it made claims  of this sort, particularly when and which postcodes data related to, and that it should attribute a source, which in the original case was Rightmove. The case was closed on an informal basis.

March 2, 2017

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