A major local authority has asked the Government for powers to ban agents’ boards.
If the request, by Camden Council in London, is granted, boards could only be erected with planning permission.
The ban would apply to both sales and rental properties.
It follows a consultation earlier this year when 89% of respondents backed plans for a borough-wide ban.
The council said that agents’ boards have triggered more than 1,000 complaints over the last five years.
Cllr Danny Beales said: “It’s clear from our consultation that an overwhelming majority of residents support the change. The boards are cluttering our streets, often left for months on end, effectively free advertising.”
Comments (15)
Lazy councilling. Can’t be bothered to sort the problem out so let’s just ban it. Knife problem? Ban all knives – butter knives, table knives, butchers knives get rid of every knife. Homeless problem? Ban them all! Obesity problem? Ban all food from Camden! Problem with searches? Ban the council!
WTF next?
Outdoor Santa/Christmas Decorations banned for being too “Christmassy” ???
Several Santa’s to be displayed to ensure all religions/ethnic groups/binary & that lengthening list of gender specific groups not being offended that “Santa is just Santa”
Hello God? We’ve got a bit of a problem. Can you create a New Range of Gods to suit all requirements please
God’s reply – “No problem, I’ll launch * God 2 * and then follow that with updated God’s on a 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 rollout. Although let me see what the development costs will be, likely software glitches/upgrades and retail pricing. Let me get back to You”
Is Camden Council still taking 50 working days to produce official searches? Maybe they should clear the backlog before taking on all those planning applications…
The parties that matter most in this, those people owning homes and those wanting to move into them, don’t seem to come into the equation in either the article or the comments and I very much doubt any one of them were in that 1000 (less than 4 a week) that complained.
Not every move is planned. Most of us are very happy where they live but we have one area, sometimes one road or even one property, that if it came onto the market you’d do anything to buy. It wouldn’t matter if it came up tomorrow, next year or in 10 years time.
I’ve also lost count of the number of people who have ended up buying a type of property or location or price totally different to the requirements they set out because they’ve driven through an area they knew nothing about or hadn’t considered and saw a property that they fell in love with.
Not every buyer is registered with agents or portals and those that are very often buy something totally left field compared to their original criteria.
Spur of the moment purchases will be a thing of the past and that’s sad.
Great news – agents’ boards are primarily there to promote agents and they are an eyesore.
Good to see you understand why agents use boards, they promote the agent and the property for sale or to let. The boards that could be banned are the one’s that promote estate agents while advertising Christmas Fairs etc.
As a conveyancer, this is just daft.
Aside from the fact that this article fails to explain its whole point – what were the complaints – all it is doing (aside from swamping the Council’s planning team yet also causing home buyers to pay even more for home buying to now apply for planning) is passing enforcement from trading standards (14 day rule and the rule that the board must be able to identify the property actualy for sale) over to the planning team.
Labour run council…they hate enterprise and profit.
in fact, Jeremy Corbyn wants to ban estate agents altogether.
Agree, but…. If bricks lost another form of advertising , would be good for local agents.
Wow!! With all the possible issues this may cause for agents, councils etc and your first thought is Purplebricks!! Do you seriously believe this would dent Purplebricks market share without affecting local agents brand awareness too??
There is some truth in “no boards” will adversely affect agents on a number of counts. They are there for two reasons.
Good move!!
Some agents boards are just left up for months and ignore the 14 day rule. This move could be the way forward for a level playing field for all agents.
I have never had the need to put a board up. Boards in my area are left up for months which serves no purpose at all. Board campaigns, board presence and bonuses for putting up boards is so 80s. Try it don’t put up a board
Actually boards do serve a purpose, one for the customer and one for the agent.
A for sale board sells the property. A sold board sells the agency.