A business news website is reporting that an agency has been ordered to pay £1,550 for displaying a board illegally.
Charles Lear and Co, Cheltenham’s longest-established independent agency, pleaded guilty to the offence which was in contravention of the Town and Country Planning (Control of Advertisements, England) Regulations 2007 between March 10 and 31 last year.
Punchline reports that the firm was fined £500 with £1,000 costs and a £50 surcharge.
The issue of boards has been a thorny one for the industry for some time, especially with To Let signs proliferating on some developments.
Letting and estate agents are required, under Planning and Highways legislation to place boards only within the boundary of the property and also to remove them within 14 days of a property being sold or let.
Just over two years ago a lettings agency voluntarily decided to scrap To Let boards in densely populated areas, because they were unsightly and because many prospective tenants found properties online.
The homes4u agency in Manchester said it recognised that many people see To Let boards as an eyesore, especially when they appear in bulk in some areas popular with students, for example.
What do you think? Are boards required in a digital age?
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No worthwhile business 'needs' anything (including Rightmove by the way). If it does then you're in the market or running the business badly. However, at the end of the day, every decision should be weighed up on it's pros and cons...
What do we lose by not having them?
I know, I know, we're in the digital age, blah, blah, blah... old fashioned, blah, blah, blah. Well unfortunately, until humans evolve beyond having their attention grabbed based on scales of relevancy, whether the thing grabbing their attention happens to be online or not, those without boards WILL be at a competitive disadvantage. The reason they've been used for so long is because they work, so irregardless of whether tenants are coming from online or not (I'd also question how this is being recorded. It would be very easy for a prospective tenant to see a board, then go online and make the enquiry), if you ditch them, then the agent who has both boards, and the same online presence as you (which let's face it, 90% of the time is a Rightmove account and a poor website) is very likely to outperform you.
In all honesty, we've found that To Let boards work better as a landlord lead generator than a lettings lead generator. We sparingly use the boards in areas of our city that we feel we might like to expand. Whereas the lettings leads that we get are less qualified and generally can be of poor quality, this is balanced against the fact that now a whole host of landlords in that area can see our board and know that we're active in the area. We went 3 years without using lettings boards and barely had a void period or a bad tenant, but without the boards we just weren't getting those landlord leads, especially from 'old school' landlords who aren't as savvy on the internet.
Boards have never been about generating enquiries to buy or let, albeit any that are generated are welcome. They are a cost effective testimonial to an agents success which speaks volumes to others considering who to use. "They chose us to list their property with, why wouldn’t you? They sold/let it, they could do that for you". Whilst agents can do that online or in leaflets, the message gets lost in all the white noise of everyone else’s identical message, and its not one that’s outside their house 24/7, unavoidable every time they leave the house or look out the window. Advertising doesn’t get any better or more direct than that.
One day public opinion may dictate they are no longer welcome on our streets, but until that day I cannot see why on earth an agent would choose not use to use them, unless they had no board presence in the first place and have never experienced what it can do for their business.
Boards breed boards
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