An 18-year-old aspiring estate agent has been offered a job interview at haart after initially being rejected because her car was considered too old.

Alanah Thompson French, from Burton Joyce in Nottinghamshire, applied for a trainee lettings negotiator role in Nottingham but was told her 2014 Citroën C1 did not meet the requirement for vehicles to be under 10 years old.

haart said at the time that reliable transport is important for staff safety, particularly when traveling long distances or working alone. French, who currently works full-time in a coffee shop, noted that the application specifically asked if her car was under 10 years old, and she answered “no.”

After the story received widespread media coverage yesterday, haart informed EYE that it has decided to remove the car-age requirement and invited French for an interview.

A spokesperson for the estate agency told EYE: “We are extremely grateful to Alanah Thompson French for raising her concerns about our car policy. Although it was introduced with good intentions, to ensure that colleagues use vehicles that are roadworthy and safe, it was never meant to prevent people from joining our organisation.

“Indeed, as the UK’s largest independently owned estate agency group, we have brought 826 new people into the profession through our sales, lettings and financial services academies in the past year alone, training our teams to be the best in the industry. We have an impressive track record of recruiting people of all ages, including many younger people who are struggling to find work elsewhere.