OnTheMarket agents are finding “numerous creative ways” to get round the ‘one other portal’ rule, Zoopla claimed yesterday evening.

Answering the claim, OnTheMarket said it was “another attempt to intimidate agents and distract from the success of their portal venture”.

Zoopla yesterday evening said in a statement put out to media:

“It is clear, following the recent launch, that some agents are very conscious of the impact of delisting their properties from either Rightmove or Zoopla Property Group and are finding ways around the terms dictated by OTM to avoid any damage to their business from participating.

Just in the past few days, certain OTM agents have chosen to either:

* ignore the rule and remain on Zoopla, Rightmove, PrimeLocation and OTM and in some cases have been open about it

* list one branch with ZPG and another with Rightmove and share listings so they get the benefit of all listings being on all portals

* create a new brand operating from the same office and use one brand to list on OTM and the other brand to list on the other portals, again getting all listings on all portals

* share listings with competitors where one company chooses Rightmove and another chooses Zoopla and all listings are advertised across all portals.

The lengths that some agents are going to in order to ensure that they are not hurt by being part of the OTM experiment demonstrates that agents clearly understand and value the exposure and enquiries delivered by the major portals and do not want to give this up until it is clear that these can be replaced.”

However, last night OnThe Market chief executive Ian Springett said that Zoopla’s claims were “another attempt to intimidate agents and distract from the success of their portal venture”.

He went on: “More than 2200 independent agent firms with over 4600 offices have committed over the last 18 months to  invest in and support a new portal which didn’t exist before last Sunday.

“Instead of asking themselves why so many customers of Zoopla/Primelocation felt motivated to do that and to drop them once it launched, ZPG and their supporters have been desperately looking for ways to undermine the entry of a new competitor to the market which works in the interests of agents, their clients and the property-seeking public.”

He added: “We have been made aware by some OnTheMarket.com members that although they served notice to Zoopla Property Group some time ago with timely and unambiguous termination notices, with the clearest instructions to remove their listings from Monday, January 26, ZPG has not yet removed all their data from its websites.

“We are monitoring this closely and those agents affected will be taking the necessary steps to ensure that their instructions are followed.

“But if there are, as claimed, agents who plan to flout our rules, we will find them and exclude them.

“It will not be too hard, with thousands of member agents who will be only too pleased to help protect the portal they own and control and which works for them.”