Purplebricks asking sellers to draw their own floorplans

Purplebricks Local Property Experts are asking sellers who are not allowing agents into their homes during the virus crisis to draw their own floorplans.

Or, as an alternative, old floorplans from historic sales details will be used.

The suggestions were made on a leaflet circulated last month, and which you can see below.

Copies of the leaflet have been circulated on social media explaining that because of social distancing and self-isolation measures, sellers should use their own smartphones or cameras to take videos and still photographs of their properties.

Then under a section called ‘Floor Plans?’ the leaflet says: “Depending on when you purchased your property I may be able to find a floor plan to work with from when you purchased the property. Alternative we can list the property without a floor plan or you can take measurements and draw the layout which I can then edit.”

There has been substantial debate in the industry over the accuracy of floorplans even when undertaken by skilled and experienced agents and chartered surveyors. 

Last year the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors ran a Certified Property Measurer course aimed at training agents and others in the industry to measure consistently in line with international standards.

And in the summer of 2019 Proptech firm Spec claimed agents were currently undervaluing properties because of what it called “outdated and inaccurate property measurement techniques used to create floorplans.”

A Purplebricks spokesperson told Estate Agent Today: “As we adapt to the Coronavirus restrictions, we are taking all possible steps to ensure the accuracy of floor plans and all information, while still keeping people moving.”

Unsurprisingly the leaflet has been the subject of comment on social media. 

Ric Pickford, the owner of Snapes Estate Agents - with branches at Bramhall, Cheadle Hulme, Poynton and Woodford - put the leaflet on Twitter highlighting the problem of “guessing off an old flooplan which might be wrong in the first place.”