Mystery surrounds an “agent” which has been reprimanded by the advertising watchdog.
The firm uses a logo on its website making it look as though it won last year’s Sunday Times and Times estate agency of the year but yesterday organiser Peter Knight said that the agent was totally unknown to him.
He said it had not even entered for an award, let alone won one.
The agent, Hugo West, also does not appear to belong to the industry bodies referenced on its own website, including TPO, NALS and SAFEagent.
Today, West Property Consultants Ltd, trading as Hugo West, has had two complaints upheld against it by the Advertising Standards Authority.
An unnamed complainant – apparently a member of the public and not a competitor – challenged what Hugo West, which claims to cover Islington, Finsbury Park and Highbury in north London, said on its website.
The complainant challenged claims that the firm is a member of various industry bodies.
The complainant also challenged a property listing on the site SpareRoom.mobi, which stated: “Whole property: £900pcm . . . Security deposit: £900.”
The complainant said that the industry logos and claims were misleading because the agent was not a member of the organisations listed and had not received the award.
The complainant said the property listing was misleading because the stated deposit and rent were incorrect and the listing did not state non-optional fees.
Hugo West did not respond to the ASA’s inquiries, and the ASA upheld both complaints.
The matter has now been referred to the Committee of Advertising Practice’s compliance team.
But a little digging by EYE shows an extraordinary picture of a business which also claims to be the UK’s leading estate agency website.
Unfortunately, we have been unable to give Hugo West’s side of the story because, like the ASA, we have failed to make contact. The phone was not picked up on the two occasions we tried yesterday.
All the claims as to various memberships and that it won last year’s Sunday Times and Times Estate Agency of the Year gold are still on the website, which claims that the firm started in 1981.
Documents available online as to the directors say that Hugo West is 25 and was born in 1990. His Linked In profile says he has been managing director of West Group since 2000 – which means he became managing director at the age of ten.
Yet other records available online say he was appointed company director in 2013.
Mr West also appears to be director of Sheri’s Hair and Beauty, and Confused Landlords.co.uk
Yesterday, the site was not just showing the NALS, TPO, SAFEagents and estate agency of the year logos, but also a Foxtons Mini.
Text includes quite a bit of Latin, which is usually suggestive of a beta website, and contains many spelling mistakes, as well as a chunk of text which looks as though it has come straight off Foxtons’ website.
The Hugo West site also mentions that it offers guaranteed rent and under this part of the site, claims to be one of the UK’s leading providers of guaranteed rent with “83 offices nationawaide” [sic].
The company further claims: “With hundreds of thousands of visitors every month, hugowest.co.uk is the UK’s leading estate agency website. Renowned for its innovative approach to showcasing properties, our website plays a pivotal role in the professional marketing of your property.”
Peter Knight, of Estate Agency Events which organises the highly prestigious Sunday Times and The Times awards scheme, said yesterday: “This firm has never entered for, or won, one of our awards.”
We asked the Advertising Standards Authority, which publishes its ruling this morning, whether the complaint came from a bona fide source, and how much investigation it did into firms.
A spokesperson told us: “The complainant was (to the best of our knowledge) a member of the public. Competitors have to agree to be named in any published ruling if they want us to take up their complaint.
“We were satisfied that it was a bona fide complaint.
“The ASA can only regulate the content of ads to ensure that claims are not likely to mislead, harm or offend.
“Of course, in some instances, our investigations into misleading advertising uncover wide problems with the trading practices (that go beyond our remit) of companies, but that is where Trading Standards or other enforcement bodies would come in.”
Should Hugo West contact EYE, we will of course give its side of the story.
The firm’s website is here
Comments (40)
Hi case so far Hugo west really thought I was a push over, haha little did he know about me. Let this be a lesson to him. He was found guilty and ordered to pay back all my money plus cost. The judge ordered him to pay me 14 days after the court judgment, that was on 7th June 2017 and even now he still continued to play his school boy games and thinks he can pay when he wants. He went against what the judge told him, well I never expected anything less than that from him anyway, given his past history with government bodies and other officials and bailiffs attempts to get hold of him as he hides away and not faces the trail of mess he leaves behind. Well that all changed from the day he signed the contract to let a shabby rented property out, that was only fit for rats.
he now wants to pay me back in instalments, haha like I’m a catalogue, like where he buys his shoes. He has the ordasity to even think to ask me if he can pay me in instalments, when he took my money he wanted it in full so I want my money back in full.
This guy is a joker.
So i encourage anybody that has had any dealings with HUGO WEST and is owed money by him or his company, to go to the small claims court because he will be made to pay you all back.
Ill keep you Upto date when he’s back in court
By: ‘HUGO WEST STOLE ALL OF MY MONEY’
Oct 11,2015
Lettings (as a Tenant) Rent PCM: £1260 Postcode: N42A
Do not do business with HUGO WEST at FINSBURY PARK LONDON, they are complete scammers/frauds, their website is not legit, their store is never open, we got frauded by one of their agents working for him because they do not identity check anyone and due to them not refunded our money they are not steeling from the public. Hugo West also himself will not refund the desposit we put down for a place in Finsbury Park which was paid directly into Hugo Wests business account, complete frauds, do not do business with them unless you want to be scammed!See other link about Hugo West http://www.suttonscityliving.co.uk/blog/mystery-agent-rapped-by-watchdog-says-it-won-top-industry-award/
I feel that the person
shut the front door Is HUGO WEST,
(This is Hugo west)
i can only apologies for this but I believe it’s very clear to see that this wasn’t done intentionally as it would be a very silly move as on the page as many reviewers mentioned there was text and images directly from one of UK larges estate agents Foxtons.
I am currently in contact with the ASA as I’m now aware of this issue and I will keep everyone posted.]
SAYS HE CONTACTED THE ASA???? Look for yourself r
Assessment
Upheld
The ASA was concerned by Hugo West’s lack of response and apparent disregard for the Code, which was a breach of CAP Code rule 1.7 (Unreasonable delay). We reminded them of their responsibility to provide a response to our enquiries and told them to do so in future.
1. We considered that Hugo West had not substantiated the claims that it was a member of the Property ombudsman, the National Approved Letting Scheme (NALS), was Safe agent fully endorsed and had won The Sunday Times Estate Agent of the Year 2014 award, and concluded that ad (a) was therefore misleading.
Ad (a) breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 3.1 and 3.3 (Misleading advertising), 3.7 (Substantiation) and 3.50 (Endorsements and Testimonials).
2. We had seen no evidence which showed that the property’s monthly rent was £900 or that the security deposit required was £900. We also considered that Hugo West had not shown that the property had no additional fees. We therefore concluded that ad (b) was misleading.
Ad (b) breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 3.1 and 3.3 (Misleading advertising), 3.7 (Substantiation), 3.17, 3.18 and 3.19 (Prices).
I apologies for the delay in responding to everyone who is waiting for a response.
Unfortunately I’ve only today released how much this issue had escalated, as everyone can clearly notice the website was consistent of parts from other firms websites eg Foxtons.
I can confirm that we have never won the Sunday times reward and west property consultants was never registered to the schemes on the website. This was an error a stupid web designer we paid to build our company website made, we had no idea that he had published the website as you can see its incomplete. When we released the designer was not actually dilesigning but simply copying from other websites so we stopped working with him.
Since then we have contacted Google to remove the listing and I can now confirm the website is no longer active.
I can only apologies for this but I believe it’s very clear to see that this wasn’t done intentionally as it would be a very silly move as on the page as many reviewers mentioned there was text and images directly from one of UK larges estate agents Foxtons.
I am currently in contact with the ASA as I’m now aware of this issue and I will keep everyone posted.
I’m Raymond Hanson the tenant that was ripped off by Hugo west. Unlucky for him he’s met a person that isn’t taking this lying down. I escalated this matter to every one that need to be aware of his cowboy tricks. HUGO WEST is in court today trying to SET ASIDE JUDGMENT of a CCJ because he couldnt be bothered to reply back to the court on time. He’s a liar and a very dishonest person. He owes me £3500 for rent and deposit so I took him to court. I hope this man gets a judge that is against all this, dishonest people are like a bad disease. There are other people that Hugo west has ripped off I wold like to hear from you if you have had the misfortune to deal with this cowboy company Hugo west he was operating from 10 BLACKSTOCK ROAD FINSBURY PARK. He even said on his website that he give 3% of monthly earnings to Great Ormond stree hospital. When the hospital was contacted they didn’t even know of HUGO WEST. How low can one man go. This was the final straw for me because my mother has involvement with young children with disabilities.
HUGO WEST SHOULD BE IN PRISON FOR OBTAINING MONEY BY DECEPTION.
Please contact me if you have had any problems with HUGO WEST. Thank you to all the replies about this Cowboy. He has to be exposed .
regards
raymond Hanson
Hi, how can i contact you?
Raymondhanson@hotmail.co.uk
please contact me also anyone else that has problems with Hugo west feel free to contact me please.
The text about “38% of viewings are done outside hours” has been reproduced so many times it seems Hugo West isn’t the only one with a “mock up” web site
Google this: (include the speechmarks)
“London and around the world, relieving clients from the”
It’s a random snippet of text from Foxton’s homepage.
See how many websites there are out there which have copied this? Maybe Foxtons web designers copied it too! Some are live agents, others are just live websites.
You have no idea what your chatting about
Robert. – It’s a mock up website. What’s there not to get? The text is probably all from Foxtons so is just there to fill the space in the mock up. it’s not been intended to be seen yet so this poor guy is not actively trying to convince people he’s been going 25 years, it’s just part of the copied text to fill the template for the mock up.
Robert. – It COULD be a scammer, it does happen, but there’s no actual indication of that. It is highly unlikely though as any half wit scammer would at least have made an effort to make the site look genuine.
Wilko. – Have you ever had any experience of designing or commissioning a website? They usually come as a template with random latin text like this and spaces to drop in pics and other text.
I’ve no idea how long it’s been live but to make a website not live once it’s been launched needs the person to deliberately delete it and as they have probably not anticipated that anybody would find it yet. It probably didn’t occur to them.
Given that the pages are called “index.php” and “page-17” etc. it’s an obvious wordpress type amateur template.
PeeBee. – As for the proposal to strike off at companies house. You can set up a ltd company for £15. It’s probably been unused and forgot to do the annual return/no accounts to file and should have marked it as dormant. It happens 10’s of thousands of times a year to dormant and forgotten ‘companies’.
How do you know it is a mock up website? A mock up web site is Home, About, Contact. not the full 17+ pages.
The URL is Google searchable so it is not a new site just recently published. That alone indicates more than enough time for it not to be a mock up. It has taken me 4 months to get out of the Google sandbox to the same extent with a URL registered last year.
“As for the proposal to strike off at companies house… It’s probably been unused and forgot to do the annual return/no accounts to file and should have marked it as dormant. It happens 10’s of thousands of times a year to dormant and forgotten ‘companies’.”
Just another of those “schoolboy errors” you’re so keen to grant forgiveness for, then.
Sorry if you think I’m being a pain in all this – but unfortunately I just can’t bring myself to stop giving a shizzle about the industry that has clothed, fed and provided a roof over the heads of my family and I since the late 1970’s.
I’ll try harder – if that makes you feel better…
Nope – still the same annoying give of a shizzle. Sorry.
Again you have no idea
you must be HUGO WEST himself
or a close cowboy friend of his that rip people off
So when there is no intention to mislead this ‘one man band’ who has been in the business for ’25 years’ can literally do thousands of valuations each week? bit odd!
That’s bearly the start of it. A brief look at http://www.hugowest.com/index.php (about two thirds down, on the left), might encourage some to stop and pause before continuing to pick on such an honourable pillar of society. I’ll quote it word for word for you but, if you do want to see it for yourself, the text is directly under the Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital Charity logo:
“Doing our part
We believe very strongly that no child should have to suffer and we believe it is our duty to help this is why we donate 3% of our monthly income to the great Ormond street hospital charity.”
I did consider posting this without anonymity, for fear that I might not be believed but, on balance, decided to hide behind an email address. I strongly encourage anyone who’s interested to contact the hospital charity as I did. Sadly, they were only too happy to confirm that they are not, nor have they ever, received any proportion of Mr. West’s ill-gotten gains.
Still, he deserves some credit for the sheer ingenuity of managing to milk a little extra living by riding on the back of cancerous babies.
I feel better now.
I got in touch with the charity and there is no money of anykind from COWBOY HUGO WEST
http://www.hugowest.co.uk/page-17.html
what a shame, they’ve stolen all the information from the foxtons website, they even got foxtons minis and brochures
According to Companies House, the Status of the parent company mentioned in the article above is “Active – Proposal to Strike off”.
Most probable reason is the apparent failure to file accounts.
What do you reckon – ANOTHER “schoolboy error” by Mr West, ShutTheFrontDoor?
“filled in with random and copied text and pics.”
That’s a ridiculous statement…….nothing is “random” about the site.
Granted it may have gone “live” by mistake, but it has been live for sometime now and with that being the case, whichever way you look at it, it can’t be right.
Or it could be one of those people who take £400 referencing fees from prospective tenants for properties that are on with other agents. Take 10 or so lots of £400 tell everyone sorry it has gone to someone else, job’s a goodun. Kerrrrching!
Guys,
It does seem blindingly obvious that this is not a terrorist, fraudster or front for the Russian mob… it’s more likely that it’s just some one man band who’s thinking of going into lettings and has made the mistake of making a mock up website live on the internet before it’s really ready or started trading.
There’s no effort to mislead and it’s just a WordPress template that has been filled in with random and copied text and pics.
Most likely, whoever dobbed them in is wanting to scupper the poor guys chances before he’s even started.
However, false rental adverts are certainly not condoned. – Although I am sure many other letting agents have started off the same way to try and drum up some business in the early days.
It seems the only attention that has been drawn to the website are from the person who grassed him up, and this site.
Natural selection usually takes it’s course anyway so he’ll either learn from this schoolboy error or be out of business as quickly as he started – although 1700 people have now at least heard of his name…
The website is probably a cover for terrorist activity or money laundering.
But hey, who cares?
The “Advertising Standards Authority” has made its adjudication.
And made itself a laughing stock into the bargain.
“We have been known for challenging tradition in every aspect of our industry since we started”
Yes you dont believe in telling the truth!
“Text… contains many spelling mistakes.”
So, funnily enough, does that of the company who seem to put their name to having designed it!
This sort of company always turns my stomach. The most sinister and uncomfortable part is the blatent, mis leading claims;
The agency clearly isn’t open 10 hours a day as Ros couldn’t get through.
They are not members of the professional bodies they show.
They have not won a gold at the EA of the Year awards.(I would think Peter Knight will take action)
The only other claim is that they give Great Ormond Street a set % of fees………if the other claims are untrue then someone should check with Great Ormond Street that they have had regular donations as this, if also proved untrue, would be the lowest of low in my view.
I find Hugo West’s claim to be open Monday to Friday, 7 days a week, confusing.
Shall I ask the ASA to investigate this?
Meanwhile, are there any EYE readers who can pop round to Sheri’s Hair & Beauty at 813 High Road, London N17 8ER.
Ask if Hugo can do a cut and finish, or flog you a house, perhaps.
I wouldn’t bother they will say it’s a subjective thing and because you know the days of the week you are too qualified in the subject to complain ( seriously, don’t laugh, if you know anything about a subject they will want to link your full name to the complaint, Mr Ajax Sheepkiller)
It appears that nearly all of the content is a cut and paste from the Foxtons website.
I wonder if the website designer knew where the photos and text was coming from?
Apparently Mr West is a Director of two other companies – one is in the ‘Import/Export’ line with Turkish connections; the other in the ‘Hair and Beauty’ industry.
That being the case it’s little wonder that you’ve been unsuccessful in nailing down Mr West for comment, Ros – he’s probably too busy ‘dahn the salon’ buffing them up!
???Am I awake?
Website displays NO properties For sale or To Rent… displays such ridiculous claims as “We complete thousands of valuations every week…” and as mentioned in the article above “With hundreds of thousands of visitors every month, hugowest.co.uk is the UK’s leading estate agency website.” (which they label as “Award Winning”, by the way…) – and ‘John Doe’ – I presume one of their quoted 98% of happy clients – proudly proclaims “Donec ac diam nec magna dignissim porta ut eu nulla. Cras neque metus, dictum et congue ac, tristique eget ante. In hac habitasse platea dictumst.”
The website doesn’t even appear to be legally compliant.
This surely cannot be? MY question is Unless this website appeared yesterday, how has this not been dealt with before now?
You know full well Peebee; basically the internet is the liar’s playground and metaphorically the teachers are inside having a coffee turning a blind eye to all that is going on.
The internet allows anyone to claim anything, publish it in an obscure corner of the ether where no-one but a dyslexic will find it and the content adds to the important GSEO score.
On the same day as Housesimple where shown as ranking 4th in the league table of Online Estate agents they were proudly advertising they were No1.
Effectively internet advertising is a game of Top Trump Billshutery
I agree wholeheartedly, Robert – however the industry is able to regulate itself to a degree and I would have thought that every Agent within a 1km radius of this outfit’s location would have been aware the day they opened their doors (assuming that is that they had a door to open…) and would immediately be aware of any false claims being bandied about.
As smile please says above, rooting out bad pennies shouldn’t be looked on as anything other than raising standards.
Peebee
i don’t think his tenants have ever challenged Hugo West.
Well im not a person to let £3500 go just like that.
Hugo is a fool and illiterate haha if you had seen him in the court you would of ended up in stitches hahaha.
The case is still on going there was problems with the court and applications.
Well he will have a big surprise next week.
Ill keep you informed on this case
Before somebody comes on here bleating about the industry needing to be regulated.
This company forged the logos of many bodies and passed themselves off as ‘Legit’ they would have done the same if they needed to be regulated.
Thankfully these cases are rare, i would encourage any agent to report another agent if they are misleading the public. You are not grassing you are protecting our industry.
Exactly
I’m still in court with this ROGUE
I have to say I now have very little regard or respect for ASA. They remind me of a department of the GLC in the 1970’s, very “Little Britain” compooter says!
“Crooks like this give us all a bad reputation.”
It’s difficult at this stage to assess the reputational damage to the industry compared, say, to the continued endorsement of the Cream Club by certain of its member companies.
Crooks like this give us all a bad reputation.
So what typically happens? they get a slap on the wrist whilst continuing to trade and undercut reputable agents.
I hope Trading Standards are quickly alerted and attend to investigate! Unacceptable practice… in my view, akin to fraud!