Lettings groups modify advertisements after complaints to watchdog

Three lettings groups have modified their advertisements after complaints were received by the Advertising Standards Authority.

The UK Association of Letting Agents was the subject of a complaint to the ASA challenging whether a listing on UKALA’s website for Safe Haven Properties was misleading because the agent had allegedly not been a UKALA member since August 2015 and therefore was not covered by CM protection or Ombudsman services.

UKALA removed the listing when it was approached by the ASA.

An email promotion for an online letting and estate agent, Visum, contained text that stated "Sell your house for a fixed fee £88 + VAT".

But a complainant to the ASA, who understood that an additional cost per month was charged for advertising their property for sale, challenged whether the ad misleadingly implied that the amount of costs incurred by consumers in selling their properties through the advertiser's website would be "£88 + VAT".

Letmatch.co.uk, for Visum, provided assurance that the email had been amended so as not to imply the price quoted would be the total cost of fees that customers would pay if their properties are sold through Visum.co.uk.

Finally a leaflet for Hunters Property Group stated “96% customer rating; industry average is 78%". There was a complaint asking whether the comparative claim breached the ASA’s code by not providing information for consumers to be able to verify the assertion.

Hunters told the ASA it was no longer distributing the leaflet.

All of these complaints have been categorised by the ASA as “informally resolved”.