The Advertising Standards Authority has described claims on a mailing by Sequence agency William H Brown as misleading.
The mailing, to landlords in Northampton, read:
"Please excuse this direct approach but we can help you. I have noticed that your property on Stanhope Road has recently become available to rent with Ashby Lowery. I am disappointed that we didn't have the opportunity to speak with you prior to your decision to market with Ashby Lowery as we currently have some professional applicants who are specifically looking for a house on or near Stanhope Road. The applicants we have are ready and waiting to move. With this in mind we are contacting you to see if we can be of help in letting your property".
There was a complaint to the ASA about the mailing. The complaint was upheld and the ASA justification says:
The ad stated William H Brown had " some professional applicants who are specifically looking for a House on or near Hambledon Rise. The applicants we have are ready and willing to move and have a budget of up to £695 pcm".
We considered the ad implied the advertiser had at least one applicant who had recently expressed specific interest in living on or near Hambledon Rise, with a budget range of up to £695 per calendar month, and that therefore the recipient would have an increased likelihood of renting their property quickly, at close to £695, should they choose to do so through the advertiser.
William H Brown provided copies of their records relating to five applicants; those records were dated between three and a half weeks and two days before the ad was distributed, referenced that the applicants were looking for houses to rent either in the relevant postcode area or named areas nearby, and referenced budgets of £500, £650, £650£675, £750 and £800 respectively.
We noted none of the applicants had specified that they were looking for houses on Hambledon Rise or on roads nearby, or that they had a budget range of up to £695, and that the majority had budgets below £675. Whilst we acknowledged that some applicants had referenced the general area where Hambledon Rise was located, and some applicants had budgets close to or higher than £695 per calendar month, because we had not seen any evidence that any applicant had specified an interest in renting a property on Hambledon Rise or roads nearby within a specific budget range of up to £695, we concluded the claims had not been substantiated and were misleading.
This is the latest of a number of rulings by the ASA about agencies.
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Comments
This is just 'good' old fraudulent representation. It stinks but I can easily understand how nice people with little commercial experience will fall for this. As a young man an awful long time ago I nearly fell for it but caution prevailed. When it came to negotiating the price I took over and achieved about the correct price instead of the substantially lower price which a buyer would pay immediately. You bet they would! The only way this will be stopped is by fining the agents responsible and making sure the fines are higher than the cash they could ever make with this fraud. Anything else is just posturing and wasting good peoples good money. I guess I do not believe an adjudication is worth the hot air needed to pronounce it.
Sequence are notorious for this in Norwich. We see this rubbish repeatedly in every empty or to let property we have available. We often see their spikey haired, pointy toed, employees putting these flyers through doors by the street loads. They are persistent and relentless but clearly it works.
I applaud the complainant (Ashby Lowry perchance) for reporting them to the ASA and I applaud the ASA for seeing this for exactly what it is - i.e. Sharp Practice. Perhaps this adjudication will stop all of the others who do either the same or a variation thereof.
Why would an agent spend money referencing tenants ability to pay without them being ready to me into one of that agent's property
Each of my rented properties had this generic letter on the doorstep! They seem to have 'applicants' for all of them. Load of rubbish!