Rightmove is cracking down harder on agents found to have inaccurate listings on the site.
The new policy will mean that any branch which offends in the same way for a second time will automatically have their properties made invisible on Rightmove until the problem has been rectified. This might be less than 24 hours.
If they offend a third time, the properties will be made invisible for a minimum of 24 hours, even if they sort the issue out sooner, losing out on the millions of home-hunters searching on site.
Current policy is that for a second offence, the agent is contacted and told the properties will be made invisible if they offend a third time. The new policy now automatically cracks down at the second offence, making the properties invisible.
A spokesperson told us: “We have a process in place of logging the offences, so there shouldn’t be a time where we don’t know of a first offence.”
Over the past year Rightmove has made hundreds of branches invisible.
Rightmove’s data quality team has dealt with over 2,500 enquiries from agents and consumers since the start of 2016 and the team has been expanded.
On average a quarter of these enquiries were not taken to investigation stage as they were found to have legitimate reasons to be on site.
In 2015 over 80% of estate and letting agents had at least one inaccurate or out-of-date property on the website removed and last year Rightmove permanently removed almost half a million out-of-date properties from the site.
Rightmove director Jason Bushby said: “The majority of agents had at least one inaccurate property on Rightmove last year, showing the scale of the task the team deal with each day.
“We know that mistakes can happen and we give agents time to rectify these the first time, but we do not tolerate agents found to be deliberately trying to upload inaccurate listings.
“If any agents try this they’re doing both themselves and potential sellers and buyers a disservice.
“We regularly speak with a number of agents for feedback on data quality to ensure that we know where we should be focusing our efforts, and we continue to improve our processes.”
Estate agent Chris Wood, one of a group of agents who has been gathering evidence of so-called ‘portal juggling’ mostly by online agents, said last night: “The portals play an important role as one part of the marketing mix good agents have at their disposal to help secure buyers at the best prices for their customers homes.
“When a portals adverts cannot be trusted by the public due to cynical, deliberate and criminal behaviour by some disreputable agents, as has been the case for the past year or so, the portals cease to offer value or worth to their paying clients and the public they both serve.
“After months of campaigning and hard work by a small group of agents and agency suppliers to raise the profile of this important issue Rightmove’s statement is much welcomed.
“However, Rightmove will be judged by its actions and the transparency and integrity with which it applies these rules.
“It is hoped, Zoopla will now follow Rightmove’s lead.”
Looks like we have a million of THESE to look forward to in future, then –
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-41249094.html
#whoopeedoo
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What was the issue with this one PeeBee, I glanced but couldn’t see it.
(it’s been a busy morning mind)
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Why, Hello, The JB – long time no see!
Now states “UNEXPECTEDLY BACK ON THE MARKET”
Yet it is ‘Listed’ today.
A quick check shows it to have been archived on 3rd FEBRUARY after 231 days of marketing.
“Unexpectedly”?
Only about as “unexpected” as the HUNDREDS of similar cases I evidence every month…
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Ah, I see.
I have to say that I have seen new depths reached, not only by the on-liners mind, over the last 24 months or so. I’m just naïve perhaps but some of the clowns practising now seem to have the moral barometer of a sewer rat.
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Following a debrief of yesterday’s meeting. This is not a witch-hunt against any particular business model; we have reported agencies of all types.
It might appear to be a witch-hunt but only in the same way as the police pick on lazy alcoholics as a focus for their drink drive crack downs.
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I get the odd email from Rightmove saying they are taking down a property that for some reason staff have neglected to turn from ‘under offer’ to off the market. Are these minor irregular lapses included in Rightmoves purges?
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The issue is somewhat exacerbated by Rightmove dashboard. The amount of iffy listings significantly distorts market share reports that are then being used to win business. An agent down the road seems to have re-listed 5 “new” instructions this week despite them being on the market for a few months with them at the same price. A little irksome.
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“An agent down the road seems to have (illegally) re-listed 5 “new” instructions this week despite them being on the market for a few months with them at the same price.” Fixed that for you – If you’ve quietly raised it with the local agent and they are continuing to carry this activity out, please report them to RM, Zoopla and, or, ASA and Trading Standards.
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REPORT THEM. Simple as.
They might get 50 lines:
I must try harder in future to hide #portaljuggles…
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Please post an outcode (first bit of the postcode) or a town, it will be good to see if we can detect who it is with nothing more than an area.
The tech we are working on has 2841 active areas to look at some with over 1000 listed properties. Given an outcode we are able to spot agents who should be a focus of portal policing
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KT7. Won’t be hard to deduce given the low supply market we operate in. 5 instructions in a week is less common than lottery wins.
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I think I see more than one…
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Are you sure it is only 5? A firm connected with another known to have had ‘technical issues’ that seems to have a very curious thing going on with their two logos.
This is very very odd and something which will need to look into in more depth.
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The 9th April was a very busy day for one particular agent.
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Wasn’t it just.
It appears on face value that they Rose to the occasion.
What lurks in the background will tell…
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Would you mind sharing details with Ms Renshaw, I wouldn’t want it claimed we only pick on Online agents.
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Done, Robert.
I wouldn’t leave Ros out where there’s potential news.
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surrey1
I have analysed the listings for that outcode, and a file is being made available to Rightmove for their investigation and response.
Watch this space…
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My colleague and I tried to change the status of some properties on RM only to find the status wouldn’t change. I don’t know if it was operator error or RM had a glitch but for several days we couldn’t do it on certain properties.
We don’t want wasted calls about sold properties as we have better things to do with our time but this didn’t help! 🙂
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Here in Thornbury Bristol the portal abuse is rife-constant reloads and churning
We report issues daily but the rightmove monitoring software is ineffective and the management stats are rendered meaningless
Stock cut and paste responses from the data team saying ‘we’re investigating-no action ever taken
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I’m looking into it now, ‘grumskikorski’.
Rightmove will receive the information.
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