An estate agent selling homes by the For Sale by Tender method – by which vendors pay an admin fee and the buyer pays the commission – has had a complaint against it upheld by the advertising watchdog.

Essex Countryside was reported to the Advertising Standards Authority by Spicerhaart after a regional press advert for Essex Countryside stated: “£99 Introducing the cheapest way to sell your home. It sounds too good to be true, but it isn’t! From 17th July 2014, we are introducing a brand new way to buy and sell property. It guarantees you will receive the highest offer possible and cost you no more than £99. This fixed price includes your EPC, property details and floor plan… It is set to be the biggest innovation in buying and selling property in Essex in decades.”

Spicerhaart, which is headquartered in Colchester, Essex, and whose haart agency currently lists a number of homes For Sale by Tender, challenged two claims.

First, it challenged the claim “introducing the cheapest way to sell your home”; and second, the claim that “it guarantees you will receive the highest offer possible and cost you no more than £99″ was misleading and could not be substantiated.

Essex Countryside told the ASA that when the ad went to press, they believed that no other agent in the area was offering a cheaper way to sell a vendor’s property.

Essex Countryside said it was the only agent within the local area who offered ‘Sale by Tender’ (SBT) and charged £99 including VAT to the vendor, who would receive an Energy Performance Certificate, floor plans and have their property advertised online and in the local area.

The agent said that the SBT was a four-week tender process, whereby all bids were collected by a specific date. The highest bid therefore guaranteed the highest price possible for the vendor.

However, both Spicerhaart’s challenges were upheld.

The ASA said it acknowledged that Essex Countryside believed they were the cheapest agents in their area when the ad went to press. They did not, however, provide any documentary evidence to substantiate the claim.

The ASA also noted that Essex Countryside offered consumers an SBT service when selling their properties and guaranteed that consumers would receive the highest offer made on their property. However, the ASA considered that the claim “it guarantees you will receive the highest offer possible” suggested that there was no way that vendors could obtain a higher offer than through the use of the advertiser’s service.

Because the ASA had not seen any documentary evidence illustrating that Essex Countryside were the cheapest agents in their area, and that they could guarantee the highest offer possible for a vendor’s property, it concluded that the claims were misleading.

The ASA has told Essex Countryside Ltd that its future advertising must not state or suggest that they are the cheapest estate agents in their area and that they could guarantee the highest offer possible for a vendor’s property, unless they possess robust documentary evidence.