Rightmove is cracking down harder on agents found to have inaccurate listings on the site.

The new policy will mean that any branch which offends in the same way for a second time will automatically have their properties made invisible on Rightmove until the problem has been rectified. This might be less than 24 hours.

If they offend a third time, the properties will be made invisible for a minimum of 24 hours, even if they sort the issue out sooner, losing out on the millions of home-hunters searching on site.

Current policy is that for a second offence, the agent is contacted and told the properties will be made invisible if they offend a third time. The new policy now automatically cracks down at the second offence, making the properties invisible.

A spokesperson told us: “We have a process in place of logging the offences, so there shouldn’t be a time where we don’t know of a first offence.”

Over the past year Rightmove has made hundreds of branches invisible.

Rightmove’s data quality team has dealt with over 2,500 enquiries from agents and consumers since the start of 2016 and the team has been expanded.

On average a quarter of these enquiries were not taken to investigation stage as they were found to have legitimate reasons to be on site.

In 2015 over 80% of estate and letting agents had at least one inaccurate or out-of-date property on the website removed and last year Rightmove permanently removed almost half a million out-of-date properties from the site.

Rightmove director Jason Bushby said: “The majority of agents had at least one inaccurate property on Rightmove last year, showing the scale of the task the team deal with each day.

“We know that mistakes can happen and we give agents time to rectify these the first time, but we do not tolerate agents found to be deliberately trying to upload inaccurate listings.

“If any agents try this they’re doing both themselves and potential sellers and buyers a disservice.

“We regularly speak with a number of agents for feedback on data quality to ensure that we know where we should be focusing our efforts, and we continue to improve our processes.”

Estate agent Chris Wood, one of a group of agents who has been gathering evidence of so-called ‘portal juggling’ mostly by online agents, said last night: “The portals play an important role as one part of the marketing mix good agents have at their disposal to help secure buyers at the best prices for their customers homes.

“When a portals adverts cannot be trusted by the public due to cynical, deliberate and criminal behaviour by some disreputable agents, as has been the case for the past year or so, the portals cease to offer value or worth to their paying clients and the public they both serve.

“After months of campaigning and hard work by a small group of agents and agency suppliers to raise the profile of this important issue Rightmove’s statement is much welcomed.

“However, Rightmove will be judged by its actions and the transparency and integrity with which it applies these rules.

“It is hoped, Zoopla will now follow Rightmove’s lead.”