My estate agent getting creative with Photoshop

DKLS

Just had my house listed by an estate agent, and low and behold the some faults have been miracuously fixed with photoshop. Very creative, but misleading to potential buyers, which I dont like.

Astaroth

I would be concerned about misrepresenting the property but the legal ramifications of that are probably on the agent rather than you. The main issue of cause is that if the photos are made to make the house A1 condition then the details will not attract the right sort of potential buyers if the condition is significantly below this.

DKLS

The fault in question will be fixed by this weekend, so its not so much of an issue really, another image (view from rear of the property looks like he has thrust the camera out of the window at a jaunty angle to take the shot. Not what you would actually see if looking straight on from the window.

Talk about creative licence, however when I come to buy another property later this year I will not trust any photo done by an agent as being a true representation of a property.

courtjester

Estate agents are bound by the Property Misdescriptions Act which states in short that any information the agent provides to buyers about your property must be accurate and not misleading in any way - this covers photographs, floorplans, virtual tours anything in fact supplied by the agent as 'particulars' of the property.

If photographs are retouched to remove serious faults or taken from a creative angle (i.e. cropping out the oil refinery next door whilst preenting the property as a country cottage), this will be a breach of the Act - it is the estate agent, not you, that will be subject to prosecution and fines for such behaviour, but it doesn't bode well for engendering good faith on both sides vital to secure offers and progress to ultimate completion of the sale.

If it is a fault that you are resolving and will not be a factor in the condition of the property when sold, it probably doesn't matter. If it is a fault that will remain and be evident at the time of viewing and could impact on a buyer's decision to offer on the property (particularly if they don't notice the fault), this is a problem.

Jorgan_2

Agree with courtjester, by changing the photo the agent is breaking the PMA. This is a big no no, personally I would have doubts as to whether I would want to use this agent in selling my property if they can so blatantly break the law.

The PMA is about misdiscriptions, it doesn't kick in when a buyer purchases a property, it starts when the misdiscription occurs, in this case, day one of marketing the property.

The legal ramifications will come back on the EA concerned, however if I was a buyer & discovered such things had happened I may atart to doubt the sellers integrity as well.

MissB_2

The house next door to my parents was advertise "with views of the Isle of Wight".
I guess, if you stood on the roof and clung to the chimney pot, and the sun was in the right direction and it was a VERY clear day... (with such weather conditions, and about thrice in a blue moon, it is *just* visible from the end of the road, but not from further up!)
Some estate agents like to use artistic licence - yours seems to be overly creative!
I always only look at the location and the basic information [number of rooms/sizes of these] the rest is too easily manipulated. Theres a lot of jargon in there too - "must see" often says to me that there probably needs to be some work done... so I look at whether it can offer the basic necessities for me and would then go to view.
B
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