An estate agent’s complaint about an online firm has been rejected by the advertising watchdog.

Manning Stainton challenged whether Housesimple’s claim to “sell your home for free” was misleading.

Manning Stainton, based in Leeds and west Yorkshire, complained about the home page of Housesimple as seen last July.

It said at the top of the page: “Sell your home for free”, stating in smaller text “with the online estate agent of the year” next to an image of a house with a Sold sign.

Further down the page, the text said: “No fees, no commission, no catch”.

A list with tick marks stated: “Local expert valuation”, “Professional photos and floorplan”, “Ads on Rightmove, Zoopla and many more”, “For Sale Board”, “Negotiations and sales progression” and “Your own friendly property expert throughout”.

Housesimple told the Advertising Standards Authority that it marketed every property for free for an initial six months. At the end of that period, it carried out a market review and if it felt it could collaborate with the vendor to sell the property, it extended the free marketing period.

It said it had never charged anyone for marketing beyond the six-month period, and nor had it ever refused anyone marketing beyond that time.

Housesimple also told the ASA that its service was offered in the north of England, and that it made no claims to offer it throughout the UK. Its website made it clear that the service was only available in certain postcodes.

The firm said it did reserve the right to charge travel costs to get to a property if it was particularly remote, and the right to charge if a property took longer to photograph than normal because it was particularly large or because there were multiple properties.

However, it had never charged in either situation, and had included those clauses as a precaution for extreme scenarios which it had yet to encounter.

The ASA said that Manning Stainton had raised its complaint based on various provisions in Housesimple’s terms and conditions.

However, it accepted that Housesimple had not enforced these.

The ASA also said of the geographical restrictions, that consumers would understand that they would not be able to sell their homes for free in areas where the service was not provided.

Ruling that Housesimple was not in breach of advertising requirements, the online agency was told that it did not need to take any action. Yesterday, Housesimple’s home page appeared to be unchanged.

Housesimple launched its free offering in the north-west and in Yorkshire postcodes last June, and just after Christmas launched in Nottingham, its first city in the midlands.