Banned! Online agencies must not advertise house for sale

Two mysterious online agencies have had their advertisements for the same property banned by the Advertising Standards Authority.

The agencies - Manchestersalerent and Overstreet - appear to have both listed a property last summer which included the description “4 bedroom Detached house for sale in Rackenford”. 

The listing on Manchestersalerent included the full address for the house and text below that included “***VIRTUAL VIEWING TOUR *** STUNNING 4 bedroomed DETACHED property in GARDENS AND GROUNDS …”. The listing included directions to the house, full details of the property and a box that included the text “Available” and “Request Detail”.

The issue was similar on Overstreet with anyone seeing the listing invited, via links, to “Schedule a Viewing Meeting with the Agent for this Property” and “Arrange viewing”, even though the property had not been on the market since 2017.

The ASA says there had been several requests for the property to be removed by the agencies before the authority had become involved in the issue.

Since last summer the ASA contacted each of the agencies concerned but received no response.

The authority has now given its verdict for each agency, which is that the advertisement must not appear again. 

In any case, both agencies’ websites appear now to have been removed.