An online estate agent that said on its website “Sell your home for 0.5%” has had a complaint about the claim upheld by the Advertising Standards Authority.
Pink & Cow estate agents, in Portsmouth, made the claim on its home page, which also said: “We’re in the perfect position to show buyers round your property” and “We’ll arrange high quality viewings and give you feedback at all times.”
However, a complainant said that the 0.5% commission did not include viewings and challenged whether the advert was misleading. With viewings included, the firm would charge more, at 0.75%.
Pink & Cow told the ASA that it offered a full online estate agency service for 0.5%.
It said that an online estate agent was very different to a high street agent and it did not think that the average consumer would assume that its service would include accompanied viewings.
Pink & Cow provided a copy of its Property Information Form which included a box to check if an accompanied viewing was necessary. The form stated that this would raise the level of commission to 0.75%.
The firm also provided a copy of the sales contract which stated: “Where a representative of the Agent is required to accompany the viewing of the property which leads to the sale the Commission Fee will be 0.75% of the final sale price upon exchange of contracts or £1,000, whichever is greater.”
Pink & Cow said that it did not market or advertise an accompanied viewing service because it was not part of the usual business practice.
If a customer requested an accompanied viewing service, this would be assessed on a case by case basis, and in general, Pink & Cow would attempt to deter customers from this course.
Pink & Cow said it accepted that the website stated: “We’re in the perfect position to show the right buyers around your property” but said that this was meant to read: “We’re in the perfect position to show the right buyers your property.”
However, the ASA upheld the complaint. It said that the Pink & Cow website gave the impression that it offered a combination of being both an online estate agent and a high street agent.
The ASA said: “In that context we considered the fact that the 0.5% fee did not include accompanied viewings was material information which should have been included in the ad. Because that information was not included we therefore concluded that the ad was misleading.”
The ASA told Pink & Cow to amend its website so that it was clear that the claim “Sell your home for 0.5%” did not include accompanied viewings.
According to Pink & Cow’s website yesterday, the agent offers sellers a choice of either £749 paid upfront, or 0.5% of the sales price on completion. Viewings cost extra, at either £200 more, or 0.25%.
According to Companies House, the business was set up in January.
What an extraordinarily sensible judgement on the part of the ASA !
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
Without wishing to sound too obvious about what Viewber does….these days vendors and landlords want and expect viewings to be done – and buyers and tenants expect to get in when they want, and if an agent can’t get to them, they can be done….at the click of a mouse.
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
….and yet strangely it was entirely obvious.
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
Yep but Viewber don’t try and sell the propertry!!!! What use is that.
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
you can’t beat actually viewing a property in person!
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
What?! Not an ‘informally resolved’ case?
Well Alby Bogarde.
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
Complaint upheld! Then what happens now? The damage has been done, so is there a fine? is the agent banned? or just a little slap on the wrist? can anyone help?
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
Interesting. A certain mauve agent in their tv adverts state that they do everything a traditional agent does. But then in their follow-up to complaints on Trust(?)pilot, they state that they believe the best way to progress sales is not to chase them. That thing we traditional agents do. Hmmmm.
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
Is it possible to create a website listing PB complaints? I have numerous buyers and sellers with horror stories. If decent ‘proper’ estate agents sit back and let PB lie in their adverts and get away with it then we will be just as responsible as we are for wasting the OTM opportunity that we had…
This should have been a reply to Mark Walker…
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
How bad of an agent do you have to be to charge 0.5% anyway? Have they got no self respect? I’ve recently been to Spain and the agents charge 5% minimum and 10% on new builds. I was talking to an agent about fees in the UK and he said “well you must charge for every phone call you make or receive and every viewing and extra for this and that……”. He could not even believe that agents in the U.K. charge as little as they do and to be honest neither can I. Dropping fees to such low levels to compete against online jokers is not the way forward and is simply creating a downward spiral.
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register