advertising standards authority
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Latest property news
Lost the plot? Welsh agent reported to ASA for misleading online ad
An estate and letting agent in North Wales has agreed to remove an online ad listing for land for sale after a complaint by a member of the public to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). Four-branch sales and letting agent Bob Parry had posted an online advert for a plot of land that claimed the agent “did not have knowledge that any planning application had been made for the land”, the ASA says. The complainant told the advertising watchdog that “planning application had previously been rejected on the land and that they had informed the advertiser” about this. The online ad was not amended and the claim continued to appear, prompting the complainant to consider it was misleading. After being contacted by the ASA, Bob Barry Lettings agreed to remove the claim from the advert. Bob Parry Lettings Ltd, which trades as Bob Parry and has 13 staff, has offices in Caernarfon, Porthmadog, Blaenau and Llanrwst. Book publisher Bob Parry, which is one of the leading agents in the area in and around Snowdonia National Park, is also well known in Wales for another reason. Simon Simcox, who has been an agent in the area for over 40 years and…
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ASA upholds two complaints against online agent
Complaints about savings claims by online agent HouseSimple both on its website and within a recent TV ad have been upheld by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). The watchdog has issued a detailed 1,500-word adjudication about the two complaints, one of which was about average fees charged by high street agents, and the other about how much vendors could save using the agent compared to a traditional agent. The adjudication’s wording also features an increasing weariness that another online agent had made claims that the ASA felt could not be justified or were misleading. This included the use of a 2011 Which? survey which many online agents have used in the past to justify the difference in fees between them and high street agents, and material published by the Home Owners Alliance. Website claims The first complaint was about copy seen on the HouseSimple website in February that claimed agents charged between 1.5% and 4% plus VAT to sell a home at an average cost of £5,237. The complainant challenged whether these figures could be substantiated and where therefore misleading, which HouseSimple said were based on the Which? report and a Home Owners Alliance secret shopping survey among agents, but…
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Barratt promises not to repeat ‘Stamp Duty paid’ claims
Developer Barratt London, which trades as BDW Trading Ltd, has been reported to the Advertising Standards Authority for an email it sent out to potential buyers. One of the recipients complained to the watchdog about claims made within the email that buyers could “secure your Zone 1 apartment with Stamp Duty Paid”. But the claim made appeared to be less generous than the email suggested and the member of the public challenged whether the claim was misleading. This was because it implied that all the Stamp Duty due would be paid by Barratt when in fact only Stamp Duty up to 3% would be paid. Therefore, because of the cost of the properties, this meant none of the apartments within the development would have all the stamp duty paid. On the Barratt website it states that Barratt “may be able to pay the Stamp Duty for you up to a maximum of 4% of the purchase price of your new Barratt Home”. But the duty is levied at 5% for properties between £250,000 and £925,000, and at 10% between £925,000 and £1.5 million. So for example at Barratt London’s luxury Landmark Place overlooking Tower Bridge within Zone 1 of the…
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Exeter agent cautioned by watchdog over use of portal comparison ad
A magazine advert run in a regional magazine by two-branch Exeter agent Wilkinson Grant has been reported to the Advertising Standards Authority by local rival SaleBoards. The advertisement highlighted how Wilkinson Grant lists its properties on “all the leading property websites” including Rightmove and Zoopla but not OnTheMarket.com,. It also claimed that – through the use of photography – vendors listing with it would receive eight times more people looking at the properties online than with rivals. The ad’s headline said “Would you rather your property is seen by this many people OR this many people?”. More buyers The ad went on to say: “Undoubtedly, Rightmove is the most powerful online property portal, but there are other platforms out there capable of putting your property in front of even more buyers. “A vast number of estate agents choose to market property on Rightmove and via the lesser known property portal OnTheMarket, which we think is bad news for vendors as they will be at a tremendous disadvantage if their property is not listed on Zoopla, the second most visited property portal in the UK and Primelocation … We advertise properties on ALL leading online property sites”. Challenge SaleBoards, which like…
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Belvoir reported for ‘misleading’ tenant fees
Belvoir, one of the UK’s largest agency franchise operators, has been reported to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) by a prospective tenant for not displaying its fees fully. The member of the pubic complained about the ‘tenant fees’ section of the company’s website, which they said did not include full details of the extra inventory fees and check-out fees it charges tenants, and that therefore it was misleading. “We contacted the advertiser who agreed to add the missing fees,” the ASA says. It is not clear whether the ASA received a complaint about the company’s main national site or one of the individual branch fee pages. Prospective tenants But many of the company’s franchisees now run copy warning prospective tenants that “due to the recent ASA ruling regarding tenant fees, please find below a full list of charges which may apply to a tenant by Belvoir”. These include its Newcastle Central, Wigan, Wellingborough, Wirral, Birmingham Central, Coventry Central, Camberley, London Central, Sleaford, Harrogate and Portsmouth branches. Belvoir has 150 branches across the UK including a head office in Grantham, where the business was started in 1995. The company also acquired rival Northwood, at the time the largest remaining independent lettings…
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EasyProperty withdraws advertising claims after ASA probe
Online agent easyProperty.com has agreed to withdraw several claims about its service from any future advertising following a complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). The complaint was made by a member of the public who had clicked on a link within a Google-sponsored search result to an ad that included: “Get an offer within 20 weeks”, “Save £2809 on estate agent fees”, “No commission fees” and “Save with low fixed fees”. After contacting easyProperty, the complainant was quoted a saving of less than £2,809 and “was not given an explanation of how the advertiser could get them offers within 20 weeks”, the ASA says, and then challenged whether the claims in the ad were misleading and could be substantiated. Claims removed EasyProperty has now removed “Get an offer within 20 weeks” and “Save £2809 on estate agent fees” from its advertising. It also agreed in future ads to use less definitive savings claims – such as ‘You could save’ and that they would make it clear that the ‘offer within 20 weeks claim’ actually referred to their money back guarantee offer, whereby consumers would receive a refund if their property wasn’t sold within 20 weeks. On this basis and…
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ASA rejects complaints about property buying agency flyer
A flier circulated in Manchester by a national property buying agency designed to resemble a red and white Post Office ‘missed delivery’ card can be used again following two recently complaints from the public to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). The cards, which the complainants said they believed was not obviously identifiable as marketing material, were designed by Property Purchased Fast to copy some design elements of a Post Office missed delivery card. This included an apparently handwritten reference number and a request to contact a named contact and mobile number, as well as the words ‘Sorry we missed you’. After being contacted by the ASA, the company said the card was marked “sufficiently clearly” with their company name, a reference number and contact details, as well as text on the front that stated “We want to offer you a FREE valuation” and a list of services. The ASA concurred. “They believed these elements made the nature of Property Purchased Fast’s business and/or the purpose of the circular clear,” the ASA says. “We considered it could be taken to mean that a caller with a business purpose had been unable to obtain an answer, rather than that it had not…
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Purplebricks takes down website claims after ASA probe
Purplebricks has been reported to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) once more for claims made on its website and, following a probe by the watchdog, subsequently taken down. The claims under scrutiny on this occasion are that it “takes us just 14 days to find a buyer” but, after the complainant clicked an icon next to the claim, it clarified that “the average time taken from a property going live to a viewing being booked for the eventual purchaser is 14 days”. A similar claim made for the Purplebricks’ lettings operation was also contested by the complainant. Using an identical device, the company said: “6 days – on average it takes us just 6 days to find a tenant”. Upon clicking an icon next to this text the following text appeared in a pop up: “The average time taken from a property going live to a viewing being booked for the eventual tenant is 6 days.” Misleading? The ASA says the complainant suggested that both claims were misleading and could be substantiated and, after the ASA contacted Purplebricks, the company agreed to remove the claims and the case was resolved informally. This is now the fourth complaint received against Purplebricks since September 2016.…
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Martyn Gerrard laments “overreaction” to ad that ASA wants taken down
An estate agency asked to remove a poster advert from an Underground Station in north London by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) following a complaint from the public has hit out against the decision. David Smith (pictured, below), who is Marketing and Compliance Director at 14-branch Martyn Gerrard, says that although in the “strict interpretation of the rules” the ASA code means the complainant is technically correct, he wonders is this is “really the sort of image they had in mind when they devised their rules? I very much doubt it”. “We were quite surprised to receive the letter from the ASA,” he told The Negotiator. “This particular advert was on an underground station platform and had been up for over a year.” The ASA rules say an advert can’t condone or encourage an unsafe practice or show anything that will result in physical, mental or moral harm. The ASA wrote via email to Martyn Gerrard on 10th March and in his reply to them David agreed to take the advert down, as we reported yesterday, but highlighted his disappointment with the request. He wondered if the complaint may have come from a “vexatious competitor agent” rather than a concerned…
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High profile agent withdraws London Underground ad after complaint
Sales and letting agent Martyn Gerrard has withdrawn a London Underground poster ad after a complaint from a member of the public. The ad, pictured below, which to some people might seem like a feel-good and innocent piece of advertising creative, featured two children – a boy at the top of a flight of stairs and a girl sliding down the stairs in a washing basket while wearing a cycling helmet and swimming goggles. The strapline for the advert was “oMG…that was a good move…Making your next big move more enjoyable”. The north London agent, which has 14 branches and was established in 1964, re-branded recently and has been advertising in the capital to support this with a series of ads featuring goggle-wearing children enjoying ‘good moves’ – including a girl clutching a toy rocket. But the latest one clearly didn’t amuse one member of the public. Complaint They complained to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) that the poster ad was likely to “condone or encourage children to copy an unsafe practice and whether the ad was also likely to be responsible”. “We contacted the advertiser about the concerns raised and they agreed to remove the ad from circulation,” an…
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