A property website set up with the needs of disabled people in mind has had its domain names returned to its original owner. However, legal action is now under way after two versions of a property website appear to be up and running.

The Accessible Property Register (http://www.accessible-property.org.uk/) was originally set up in 2003 by Conrad Hodgkinson and his partner Dr Christine Barton MBE.

The APR website advertises wheelchair accessible property for sale and rent across the UK.

Barton, a wheelchair user, had been diagnosed with primary progressive multiple sclerosis and died in 2013.

Hodgkinson continued to run the site but in 2015 was introduced to Sebastien Goldenberg, CEO of mainstream property website The House Shop.

According to Hodgkinson, it was agreed that the House Shop would run the accessible site on licence and a two-year agreement was signed, with a share of the revenue due to be paid to him.

In 2017, it was agreed that an updated site was needed, which was built by The House Shop, and duly went live. A new licence agreement was also discussed, this time for five years.

However, Hodgkinson says that the new site, while visually an improvement on the old, failed to provide essential access information.

He said: “The original site featured detailed access criteria and search facilities so that site users could specify exactly what access features were required.

“The new site did not offer this option, neither was access information being provided in individual adverts, meaning that while the new site looked visually impressive, it was failing to meet the main purpose of APR, which is to make it as easy as possible for site users to find wheelchair accessible and other adapted property. The site also did not appear to be finished as a number of key links did not (and still do not) work.”

Hodgkinson also says that the new licence agreement never arrived, and no licence payments were made after 2017.

Last July, Hodgkinson terminated the agreement and asked for the two domain names (accessible-property.org.uk and accessible-property.co.uk) to be returned, but says that The House Shop failed to respond.

A dispute then went to Nominet, the regulator of domain names, which in December ruled in favour of Hodgkinson.

Hodgkinson has now reassigned the licence and the new website is now up and running at the original address, http://www.accessible-property.org.uk

However, he says that The House Shop is still carrying its version, with references to the Accessible Property Register and to Hodgkinson and his family.

Hodgkinson says that this is despite the case that none of the properties currently advertised appear to be either accessible or available.

He told EYE: “Legal action is currently in preparation to resolve this situation and to recover unpaid licence fees from the end of 2017.”

EYE has attempted to contact Goldenberg but without success.