A Misleading Estate Agent

pegtop2

What should happen to an estate agent who puts in the local paper a blatantly misleading advert for a propetery they are trying to sell?

The advert is wrong on three counts.

1. "Three bedrooms". Presumably they are including the unconverted loft
room. There are only has two usable bedrooms.


2. "Drive to garage" There is no garage only a carport.


3. "Gas central heating system" It is electic night storage system.

I know all this because I have been to view the property.

Captain_Mainwaring_2

pegtop2 wrote: »

What should happen to an estate agent who puts in the local paper a blatantly misleading advert for a propetery they are trying to sell?

The advert is wrong on three counts.

1. "Three bedrooms". Presumably they are including the unconverted loft
room. There are only has two usable bedrooms.


2. "Drive to garage" There is no garage only a carport.


3. "Gas central heating system" It is electic night storage system.

I know all this because I have been to view the property.

Which is probably more than the agent has done.
Welcome to the world of seedy little men who sell houses and finance for houses.

abaxas

Captain_Mainwaring wrote: »

Which is probably more than the agent has done.
Welcome to the world of seedy little men who sell houses and finance for houses.

Welcome to the world of finance.

Anything which involves money, attracts scum. It's mad that buying a sofa from SCS, has more regulation than a mortgage.

mymatebob

Have you reported back to the estate agent that you couldn't find one of the bedrooms, the garage seems to be missing and that the method of heating seems to be different from that stated?

Maybe a complete c0ck up on their part?

(Maybe not)

mizzbiz

I think they may have fallen foul of the Trade Descriptions Act 1968

False Trade Description

[FONT=BCNKBM+Arial,Arial]

For the purposes of this Act a trade description is an indication as to any one of a number of matters listed in the Act. The quantity, size or gauge of goods ('this bedspread is 70"x 90").
To be an offence the indication must be false to a material degree. It is not enough for it just to contain a quite insignificant inaccuracy. It must be applied to the goods in question, whether in writing or by means of an illustration, symbol or other marking on the goods themselves, on containers, labels, showcards, in advertisements, etc, or in an oral statement.

[/FONT]

boo0704

Hi
I was readng through and this caught my eye!

The agent in question could go to prison for Property Misdescriptions, so please think carefully before you act. I would suggest a quiet phonecall would do the trick and explain - yes mistakes do happen, we are all human. But in fairness it shouldnet have been wrong, but in the grand scheme of things once its rectified - does it really matter?

rd_ea

mizzbiz wrote: »

I think they may have fallen foul of the Trade Descriptions Act 1968

False Trade Description
[FONT=BCNKBM+Arial,Arial]For the purposes of this Act a trade description is an indication as to any one of a number of matters listed in the Act. The quantity, size or gauge of goods ('this bedspread is 70"x 90"). [/FONT]
[FONT=BCNKBM+Arial,Arial]To be an offence the indication must be false to a material degree. It is not enough for it just to contain a quite insignificant inaccuracy. It must be applied to the goods in question, whether in writing or by means of an illustration, symbol or other marking on the goods themselves, on containers, labels, showcards, in advertisements, etc, or in an oral statement. [/FONT]

There is a separate act specifically for property - The Property Misdescriptions Act 1991. It is an offence for an estate agent to make false or misleading statements in any written material (eg brochures or website) but the interesting thing is that it also refers to verbal info given (so if on the phone they say that a property has gas fired heating when it really has oil etc).

But bear in mind that often details are provided by vendors (they may say property was re-wired 5 years ago when it was ten etc) and the agent who shows due dillgence should get every vendor to sign to confirm they approve the text for brochure/internet before the property is first advertised. It may be that the vendor in complicient in this inaccuracy - they should have noticed that their property was not being advertised correctly.

The Act is enforced by local authorities' Trading Standards Office if you want to take it further.

lonestar1

Let them know the details are wrong if they dont correct them report them to trading standards. We all make mistakes and unless this agent makes them all the time its likely to be a detail mix up, they do happen you know

RabbitMad

probably the wrong picture for the description if it was in the paper. what did the full details say?

Ask the agent for the cost of petrol visiting the house on their misleading advert.

ginvzt

Well, when we put the house on the market, EA came out to value it, then came back (another guy from the office) to do the measurements and description. Whenwe got the 'property details' for approval, we were shocked - although the pictures where of our house, the description was as if of some different house with very intricate use of the language. We had to re-write it ourselvse. And this is what 1.5%+VAT of the fee goes to!

poppy10_2

pegtop2 wrote: »

2. "Drive to garage"

There is no garage only a carport.

Yes, that's why you have to drive to the garage :beer: