A furious estate agent is starting legal action against another who he claims has ripped off his company’s name and branding.

The alleged ‘copycat’ branding was spotted by someone in Jamie Lester’s printing company as they drove through Surrey and saw what looked like similar For Sale boards.

Lester, who launched haus Properties,in Fulham, London, in 2011, has instructed lawyers after Wayne Le-page set up house Properties in Cobham on April 14 this year.

Lester told Eye: “I had never met the man until we went on a skiing trip this year that was organised for businesses. Obviously, there was a lot of networking and talking.

“We flew back on March 29 and barely a fortnight later, he launched an estate agent with almost identical branding to ours.

“The only real difference is that he spells it ‘house’ and we spell it ‘haus’, but all the boards, messages, lettering and colours are all virtually identical to ours.

“He has even ripped off how I sign myself off – as “head of haus”. He calls himself ‘head of house”.

“I was absolutely gob-smacked. As far as I know he has absolutely no experience of estate agency.

“I feel strongly that branding is the future for estate agents and absolutely passionate about my own brand – which, needless to say, I have invested heavily in.

“I started haus Properties because I wanted to be completely different from other agents, so to find out business replicated in this way is sickening.”

We invited Le-page to put his side of the story, but he said: “I have absolutely no comment to make.”

http://www.hausproperties.co.uk/blog/imitation-is-the-sincerest-form-of-flattery.html