A behind-the-scenes campaign aimed at stamping out bad practise is under way following a slew of rulings from the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) - with the threat that if the industry does not shed its cowboy image, tougher sanctions are on the way.
One of the main issues is fees charged by letting agents.
A recent ASA ruling against national letting agent Your Move demanded online property portals and web sites include fees to tenants in buy-to-let advertisements.
“Our main concern is the content of advertising is truthful and does not mislead consumers,” said an ASA spokesman.
“We are working with the market to educate them about standards, but if this doesn’t work, we have recourse to ratchet up sanctions by referring the cases to the Office of Fair Trading or trading standards.”
Meanwhile, The Property Ombudsman has worries about ‘passive intermediaries' introducing buyers and sellers to developers.
“The point I am concerned about here is if it says 'estate agent' on the tin, looks like an estate agent and acts like an estate agent then the consumer will assume they are dealing with an estate agent,” said a spokesman.
“They will be unaware that, like a private sale, there is no free access to redress through the ombudsman scheme if a dispute arises and will be misled into a less structured environment. I assume also that such offerings will be at a price much reduced on the charges by a recognised agent.
“Inevitably that will attract more sellers to use those services, more buyers will therefore be innocently drawn in and overall more consumers will be involved in a transaction where the only independent redress mechanism is potentially expensive legal action.”
Another cause for concern is websites advertising properties for DSS tenants.
Consumer protection groups are looking at several sites that may be ‘scraping’ the details of legitimate buy to let properties for rent without permission from letting agent and property portal websites.
They then charge DSS tenants a fee to access their sites – either as a subscription or by premium rate phone lines.
On inquiry, the tenants then find they need to pay further fees or the properties do not exist.
