{"id":19217,"date":"2018-01-30T10:42:54","date_gmt":"2018-01-30T09:42:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.propertysurveying.co.uk\/newsletter\/?page_id=19217"},"modified":"2020-07-15T10:57:43","modified_gmt":"2020-07-15T09:57:43","slug":"estate-agents-still-walking-minefield-advertising-standards","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.propertysurveying.co.uk\/newsletter\/?page_id=19217","title":{"rendered":"Estate Agents still walking through the minefield that is advertising standards"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The advertising rules regulator, Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) has criticised the industry for \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcrepeat problems\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 in advertising.\u00c2\u00a0 It has called for immediate action and a \u00e2\u20ac\u02dccompliant level-playing-field\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 within the market in 2018.\u00c2\u00a0 The Advertising Standards Authority investigates complaints.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Omitting significant limitations, exclusions or qualifications<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Some of the practices recently criticised include claims that a \u00c2\u00a3495 flat fee for the sale of a property did not make it clear to consumers that it only covered the advertiser\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s own conveyancing service.\u00c2\u00a0 Additional fees would be payable if a customer chose to use their own conveyancer or mortgage broker, which was deemed to be misleading.<\/p>\n<p>Similarly, a quoted 0.5% commission fee was quoted for the sale of homes but the advert didn&#8217;t explain that this was for unaccompanied viewings only.\u00c2\u00a0 The agent was criticised for not making it clear that accompanied viewings were not included within the fee structure.<\/p>\n<p>Purplebricks recently defended its advertising when customers asserted that their claim of being \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcfee free\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 was incorrect.\u00c2\u00a0 In its defence, the company said it believed customers recognised the difference between a flat fee and commission.\u00c2\u00a0 The investigation part-held the complaint, requiring fee comparisons in further adverts to make clear that the flat fee was always required.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Omitting non-optional taxes, duties, fees and charges<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Criticism was made of an advert that quoted fees exclusive of VAT: i.e, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dc0.5% plus VAT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122.\u00c2\u00a0 As VAT is applicable to nearly all buyers, this was deemed misleading.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Stretching the facts when describing a property<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It is no longer acceptable to use \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcpoetic licence\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 to make unsubstantiated claims although, in some cases, agents run the risk of upsetting the seller if they are too close to the truth. \u00c2\u00a0Most of us will not find this surprising, but estate agents have long had the reputation of being guilty of stretching the truth.\u00c2\u00a0 Claims of \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcprivate and secure parking\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 and \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcremote control gated access with CCTV\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 that could not be substantiated is perhaps a far stretch from old days of \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcbijoux\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 (small), \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcloved by a DIY enthusiast\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 (dangerous), or \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcarchitect designed\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 (odd or outdated).<\/p>\n<p>Agents were advised to make comparisons only where they could be \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcbased on objective criteria\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 and verifiable.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What is \u00e2\u20ac\u02dclocal expertise\u00e2\u20ac\u2122?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>An investigation took place when it was found that a press advert and website which displayed phone numbers and email addresses where the advertiser purported to have physical offices in towns around Norwich.\u00c2\u00a0 Although having a local expert was acceptable, inferring that they were based in physical branches was not.<\/p>\n<p>However, a claim by an online estate agent that referred to \u00e2\u20ac\u02dclocal property experts\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 did not breach the rules because the \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcexperts\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 did indeed possess relevant knowledge and experience in the areas they served.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.propertysurveying.co.uk\/newsletter\/?page_id=19212\">Back to January 2018 Newsletter<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u00c2\u00a9\u00c2\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.propertysurveying.co.uk\/INDEX\/INDEX1.html\">www.PropertySurveying.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The advertising rules regulator, Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) has criticised the industry for \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcrepeat problems\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 in advertising.\u00c2\u00a0 It has called for immediate action and a \u00e2\u20ac\u02dccompliant level-playing-field\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 within the market in 2018.\u00c2\u00a0 The Advertising Standards Authority investigates complaints. Omitting significant limitations, exclusions or qualifications Some of the practices recently criticised include claims that a &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.propertysurveying.co.uk\/newsletter\/?page_id=19217\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Estate Agents still walking through the minefield that is advertising standards&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":22317,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"folder":[556],"class_list":["post-19217","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Estate Agents still walking through the minefield that is advertising standards - Property Surveying NEWSLETTER<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.propertysurveying.co.uk\/newsletter\/?page_id=19217\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Estate Agents still walking through the minefield that is advertising standards - Property Surveying NEWSLETTER\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The advertising rules regulator, Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) has criticised the industry for \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcrepeat problems\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 in advertising.\u00c2\u00a0 It has called for immediate action and a \u00e2\u20ac\u02dccompliant level-playing-field\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 within the market in 2018.\u00c2\u00a0 The Advertising Standards Authority investigates complaints. 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