Top London agents, including Savills, Knight Frank, Douglas & Gordon, Marsh & Parsons, Chestertons, Winkworth and Savills, are all on a site which tells people how to burgle properties.
The apparently tongue-in-cheek article, but which is likely to shock many in the industry as being totally inappropriate, appears on a website called My Property Guide, which provides a directory of agents all over London.
One ARLA agent told us he had no idea that his firm’s details were on the site – which appears to be run by a letting agent – until sent an unsolicited lead, which he did not follow up.
He visited the site to find his company listed, with a link to his firm’s website.
He then discovered the article, written for the “Helpful Advice” section.
Headlined “Using property websites to plan the perfect burglary”, it is a step by step guide to choosing the wealthiest properties in the richest boroughs, and using satellite imagery to look for large and expensive properties with the means for a quick exit.
The article also tells readers how to search internet archives for property listings and use estate agents’ floor plans and pictures.
The agent told Eye that he found the article to be in very poor taste and, quite apart from the fact that his firm’s information had been taken without permission, did not want to be in any way associated with it.
He said he would be surprised if agents of the likes of Savills and Knight Frank would take a different view.
He has now twice asked for his firm’s information to be taken down, but has yet to receive a reply.
A number of London agents on the site could also be inadvertently breaching the OnTheMarket “one other portal” rule.
The site does not list actual properties but does give agents’ names. For example, someone searching for a property in Belgravia can apply online, giving their details and requirements. Their email will be sent on to Chestertons, Knight Frank, Gascoigne-Pees, Douglas & Gordon, Strutt & Parker, Andrew Reeves, WA Ellis and Plaza Estates.
The site clicks through to agents’ own websites, but “customises” them to make them look as though they are hosted by My Property Guide – see the example below.
The site gives some wrong information – saying that there cannot be an Assured Shorthold Tenancy agreement where the rent is over £25,000 per year. In fact, this was changed on October 1, 2010, to £100,000 a year.
We tried unsuccessfully to contact the site and the person who appears to have registered the domain name.
The information on how to plan the perfect burglary is here and shown below
The site is here
This must be something of a record for Eye: 2,000 reads and not a single comment. Don’t agents not care about the ‘advice’ posted on the website? Or is it seen simply as a ‘joke’?
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I don’t get it at all. A joke? Hardly. A benefit to the site? How?
I just can’t see why the site’s there. It’s not even a reliable source of information given that it has very out-of-date guidance. It even refers to providing data sourced from Findaproperty! Minor updated that would take only minutes to put right. Whoever owns the site doesn’t seem to have their heart in it…
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Agents do not listen to warnings Ajax. An example; the seeds of the duopoly were planted in August 2008, the green shoots appeared in October 2011 and was a sapling by Easter of 2012. It wasn’t till almost 9 or 10 months later was there some recognition of what was happening to agency at the hands of two supposed service providers despite there being repeated points all announcing what was happening.
Eventually the penny drops or someone with respect, authority or strong networking connection twigs what is happening, something happens and agency is saved from it own conservatism once again. Don’t fret that there are no comments someone will have taken note of the story and will be motivated to do something if it affects them.
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Robert
I hear what you say, but as a journalist I thought this was an important story for Eye to run yet it provokes almost nil reaction. The report on Wed about the agency closed down by the Insolvency Service was also almost devoid of comment, except that we are told they were the bane of the industry for 25 years. And there is a company now that is a massive scandal which is supported by figures at the very top of the industry, and it can’t be long before that story is told. But the message is that corruption and greed are at the heart of the industry, yet I personally believe that the majority of agents do a tremendous job and are much maligned. So it is sad when good people do nothing and allow wrongdoing to flourish.
I hope you are right and that “someone will have taken note of the story”.
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