A property listed by Connells’ brand Sequence on Rightmove drew a complaint to the advertising watchdog because it was no longer available.
The complainant was informed that the property was no longer on the market, and told the Advertising Standards Authority that the advert was misleading.
A spokesperson for the ASA said: “The advertiser removed the listing and we told them in future to ensure they updated listings as soon as they knew a property was off the market.”
The complaint was resolved informally.
Comments (5)
It is not uncommon for property software (not going to mention names) to complete a task and not remove a property from the portals when it has been withdrawn!
Rory Naughton Leeds
not the biggest crime though is it… complaint from the entitled public
Not the biggest, no, but it is all part and parcel of the ways that agents go about falsely boosting their presence and profile on Rightmove and other portals, in an effort to make their market share appear bigger than it is, which is misleading the public. It is like leaving a board up for months and months after the property is withdrawn or completed.
It depends whether the property was “under offer/sale agreed” or properly unavailable, as in withdrawn or sold (completed). If the latter, it also depends on how out of date the listing was – if the property was sold (exchanged and completed) a week or so ago, then the judgement is a bit harsh, if the sale was more than a month ago, then it is part of the portal juggling that Peebee, Robert May and others have rightly fought against for such a long time.
Connells brand ‘sequence’ doesn’t say a great deal really. It would be useful to know which of the 300 odd branches of sequence it was or even which sequence brand the story relates to? I think there are roughly 15 or so separate trading names across the UK so could be anywhere!
Wouldn’t it be lovely to have portals without old listings, both agents marking sold, agents listing from several satellite offices