Two more informally resolved complaints against agents have been reported by the Advertising Standards Authority.
In the first case, Cityzen Properties was challenged as to claims made on its website and Facebook.
A complainant queried whether the claims “serving the whole of London” and “one of the leading east London estate agents” could be substantiated.
The ASA itself challenged whether a testimonial breached the advertising code because it implied a director of the company was acting as a consumer.
Cityzen produced evidence which satisfied the ASA that it did serve the whole of London.
However, the firm agreed to remove the testimonial and the claim that they are a leading east London agent.
In the second case, there was a complaint about Simpsons Estate Agents Ltd not including VAT in its advertised charges. The firm amended this.
So far this year, there have been more formally resolved cases than there were for the whole of last year.
The ASA’s data is not just about complaints against estate and letting agents, but other property firms such as developers. However, agents do dominate.
Last year there were 11 formal rulings, of which two were not upheld, and nine upheld in total or in part.
So far this year there have been 15 formal rulings, of which two complaints were not upheld, and 12 upheld in total or in part (you have to ignore the pregnancy testing firm which has somehow crept in there).
In contrast, there have been fewer informally resolved cases against property firms so far this year than for the whole of last year.
There were 72 in the whole of 2016; so far this year, with the two latest cases, we think there have now been 53.
However, it looks as though the final result could be close run. Again, estate and letting agents dominate the lists of informally resolved cases involving property firms.
Jan-Sep 2017
2016
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