superslinky

Complaints about "misleading advertisements" should go to the Advertising Standards Authority. There are statutory regulations prohibiting this sort of practice. I have reported local EAs for advertising properties "sold subject to contract" while continuing to display the asking price. This is illegal unless the quoted price is the actual selling price, which of course it rarely is. It works, although in the first instance the EA only gets a warning letter. If he does it again he risks being fined.

Regarding EAs and "sold subject to contract" stickers - this is illegal if the price is displayed and it is not the actual agreed price, as it is a "misleading advertisement". If you ask the ASA nicely they will write to the EA and tell them to stop. It works - I have done it. If they repeat the offence they can be prosecuted and fined. Of course it is not illegal if it is the actual agreed price, but...

"...whom exist to police breaches of the law" is priceless... As a previous poster has indicated, "proven loss of value" would be the sticking point and the EA would no doubt only consider himself bound (if at all) in genuine forced sale cases. But naked attempts to ramp up (fix) a failing market should be exposed and stopped.

Call me suspicious, but I don't understand how a "glitch" could have this effect. If there is a reasonable explanation perhaps the EA could post it. To me it looks like a prima facie case of a misleading advertisement. If this were done deliberately it clearly would not reflect genuine price changes and it could clearly have the effect of creating a misleading impression for potential buyers. The Advertising Standards Authority will investigate this kind of thing in an appropriate case. It does not necessarily mean ruin for the EA - generally speaking the ASA will accept a cessation of the practice (if that is what it is) and an undertaking not to do it again. The point of that of course is that if the offence is repeated then the EA could find itself on the wrong end of a substantial fine.

I love "smart oak style units"...

Unreconstructed Sabbath fan and Squier Strat hacker. Favourite HPC/Sabbath track - Hand of Doom.

Called this afternoon by an EA with whom I'm registered. Chatted for about 20 minutes - they are desperate for buyers - "negative equity 'not a problem' if you want a 'home' and do not need to sell..." I can understand this as EAs are vendors' agents, not buyers', but should "property experts" be giving this sort of "advice"??? Hard sell mitigated (contradicted?) by admission that vendors are being "unrealistic" and "greedy", especially the ones who are already sitting on huge notional capital gains. Left it on the basis that I would call them if I wanted to view anything!

Or, on the assumption that there may be corporate vehicles/wrappers for these holdings, Companies House searches to find the directorships held by the respective parties... Sadly Freedom of Information Act requests for details of property holdings would not be possible because C4 and the Times etc are not public bodies.

Not sure whether you can still do this but it used to be possible to do a "name search" at the Land Registry. But with a name like David Smith you would also need a residential address to narrow it down a bit. Anyway, it probably only costs a few quid. Has anyone done it for Phil and Krusty? Or Sarah?

Nice one! Also, according to the floorplan it doesn't have a front door either... Will the quality of floorplans improve as the market crashes, I wonder.

whoops... http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-203...=1&tr_t=buy

1.html This one's even dodgier! Seriously though Property Bee is showing significant reductions across the board in Reading.

Right - and what about the DFS advert about getting half a sofa free? They were not actually prepared to cut up any sofas (total cost - less than £10k), and the production values suggest that the rest of the budget must have been pretty paltry. So no-one is furnishing new houses, or moving out of furnished rentals, or spending any money, full stop.

Me too - especially as he has just taken it off the market having tried to sell at a ridiculously inflated price for the last five months.

Amateurs will be selling, professionals buying...