Advertising Standards Agency
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Regulation & Law
Unite Group forced to change website over ombudsman advice
The student rental accommodation provider had advised anyone with a complaint to contact the Housing Ombudsman when it wasn't signed up to the service.
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Regulation & Law
ASA warns property industry over advertising T&Cs
Well-known developer Pegasus has been given a slap on the wrist for misleading fine print in property ads.
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Latest property news
Purplebricks in trouble over fees claims on its own website
Advertising watchdog asks hybrid agency to amend its marketing after two complaints about text that claimed deferring payment was 'at no extra cost'.
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Latest property news
Another house raffle firm taken to task by advertising watchdog
Company selling luxury apartments via property raffles has complaints about its ad upheld by the Advertising Standards Authority.
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Latest property news
Complaints about tweets used to sell house via spot-the-ball competition upheld by watchdog
Read how a couple who tried to sell their £3.5 million riverside home via a spot-the-ball competition have fallen foul of ASA advertising rules.
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Latest property news
Purplebricks agrees to clarify what ‘pay nothing upfront’ means on its website
It has been a busy week for the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) which has had to deal with three property firms referred to it by members of the public, including Purplebricks. This will be the fifth time this year the hybrid agency has been dealt with by the ASA and the tenth time overall since 2015. This time the hybrid agency has agreed to add a clickable but tiny ‘information’ symbol (see below) on its ‘What’s included in our fixed fee’ page next to the words ‘A choice to pay nothing upfront’. A member of the public complained that this could be misleading because, if a vendor chooses to pay later they either have to use Purplebricks’ Advanced Conveyancing Services or, if they don’t, pay an administration fee of £360 including VAT. After being contacted by the ASA, Purplebricks inserted the pop-up information button containing the words explaining this, and the case was resolved informally. Two other agents The other agents featuring in this week’s ASA cases include Property Collection Worldwide and Space4Living. Cambridge-based the Property Collection Worldwide had been reported for claiming to be the “UK’s leading estate agents’ marketing specialists”, a claim that when challenged it agreed to…
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Latest property news
Independent estate agent challenged over speed-of-sale claims
Independent estate agent Curchods has got into hot water with the advertising watchdog over two direct mailshots it sent out recently. In both the mailshots the company, which has its headquarters in West Horsley and operates 21 branches across Surrey, made claims about how fast it could sell properties and exchange contracts, and also the total value of its property sales over the past 12 months. But a single complainant – presumably a local competitor – challenged whether theses claims could be substantiated, and the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) approached Curchods – which is owned by parent company Simpsons Estate Agents Ltd – to investigate. Curchods, which is one of Surrey’s oldest estate agent brands with a history stretching back 75 years, agreed to withdraw the marketing material containing the claims about average speed of contract exchange. Also, the company agreed to insert qualifications into other material about the number of sales per hour it achieves and was able to prove to the ASA the number of sales it had made over the past year. On this basis, the ASA says the complaint was informally resolved. Brexit worries Curchods’ parent company Simpson Estate Agents bought the sales operation of local…
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Purplebricks withdraws claim that its fixed fee includes viewings
Purplebricks has removed copy on its website that suggested viewings were included in its fixed fee offering following a complaint made to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). The person complaining challenged whether the section on its website that said “viewings – we take care of them all” was misleading. This offending copy was on a box on its homepage (see below) which then linked to a separate page that only then clarified that vendors must pay an additional one-off fee to have viewing of their property managed by Purplebricks. The ASA approached Purplebricks with the concerns about the claims made on the site and the company subsequently agreed to “amend the section”. This has now been replaced with a pop-up box of copy that highlights how the company has one of the “UK’s largest databases of buyers”. The latest ASA intervention comes just over a month since a BBC investigation into the company by both the Your & Yours radio, and Watchdog TV programmes into the company. These looked into both claims made by Local Property Experts about the number of homes they listed every month, and that details of how the company arranges for customers to defer their fee…
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Latest property news
Preston estate agent corrects Rightmove listing after complaint
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has investigated a complaint against Preston estate agent Leftmove about two of the company’s listings on Rightmove. A statement from the ASA says the complainant said both properties were advertised as “under offer” even though Land Registry information revealed they had been sold in March and April this year respectively. The ASA says it contacted Leftmove which said the mistake was due to human error and both listings have now been updated to “sold”. Following the explanation and remedial action by Leftmove, the ASA says it didn’t consider that further action was needed and closed the case informally. Leftmove has five branches in Preston, Freckleton, Kirkham, Blackpool and St Annes and has approximately 16 staff. The company was established in 2014 and claims to be one of the fastest growing agents in the affluent area stretching from Preston, along the Ribble river and north to Blackpool. Its Preston branch is listed as 1st out of 172 in the PR4 postcode for instructions and it has sold 20 properties this year according to its Rightmove listing. It lists with both Rightmove and Rightmove and operates an unusual pricing structure, charging different set selling fees for properties,…
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Latest property news
Advertising watchdog censures Houser over ad, but is anyone at home?
Hybrid property portal Houser has been criticised by the Advertising Standards Authority after it ignored efforts by the watchdog to investigate a complaint about one of its listings. Agent Newton Fallowell, which has over 30 branches across Lincolnshire, Staffordshire, Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire, had complained to the ASA about a property listing on Houser that was for a house that had been sold two years ago. The ASA said that potential buyers would have understood from the ad that the property was still on the market when it was not, and that therefore it was misleading under rule 3.1 of the CAP code. But when contacted by the ASA, Houser did not respond to its enquiries, and the watchdog says it is “concerned by Houser’s lack of response apparent disregard for the Code”. “We remind them of their responsibilities to respond promptly to our enquiries and told them to do so in the future,” the ASA says in its judgement. Property hunting reinvented Houser launched in January 2015 after buying the assets of failed property search engine NeedaProperty, describing itself as “the one you didn’t see coming” and that its service is “property hunting reinvented”. The company offers agents free listings…
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