Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
My flat fraudulently advertised by Kings Estate Agents!
When browsing RightMove and Zoopla this weekend, I was shocked discover my own flat - which is not for sale - being advertised by Kings Estate Agents!
Has anyone else had a similar experience? If you've recently bought, you might want to check!
It had been first advertised a couple of weeks ago and then they 'reduced the asking price' just last week. At the time I bought the flat, last October, it was advertised by several estate agents, including Kings - so they have simply reused the photographs and description (but nearly doubled the asking price!). When I contacted them to ask for a viewing they told me it had just been sold. I can only assume that Kings (and perhaps other estate agents) are doing this systematically to increase traffic to their websites and shops.
This practice is completely dishonest and harmful both to those whose properties are being advertised (in my case, my flat now looks like it has been on the market for some time and had the price reduced, which will not be helpful when I do come to sell) and to those trying to buy, who are being given false information about both the availability and price of properties.
I believe this is illegal and am considering reporting them both to their ombudsman and the regulator. I'm interested to hear if anyone knows about this practice or has had a similar experience - with Kings or anyone else.
Thanks,
Elin
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by AndrewAW1 on
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I seem to remember a similar thread on here a while ago, I can't remember which agency it was though. A few searches may bring something up.
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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on
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I seem to remember a similar thread on here a while ago
That thread appears to have been removed from HOL (perhaps the site administrator may comment). When I did a general web search for the estate agent concerned, Google claimed about "21,500 results", but with an interesting disclaimer:
"Some results may have been removed under data protection law in Europe"
Was this a concerted effort at sanitising, in a similar way as some criminal convictions are deemed to be 'spent' ?
My preference would be those few estate agents who misbehave in this way to be named and shamed – and remain as a warning and example for others.
Councillor (Highgate Ward)
Liberal Democrat Party
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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Which thread? Have you searched exhaustively? It hasn't been removed by us to the best of my memory and knowledge. Very few threads get removed by us - though by reading the number of comments like yours Clive, people would be forgiven for thinking differently. I don't know if this thread has been removed and don't have time to search as a check. If it's been removed, I don't know why. Posters remove their threads for various reasons as I've explained to you in my reply to your HoLMail message.
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I knew there was an earlier thread but had not correctly remembered the name of the company involved. Sorry for the confusion.
SarahC has identified the correct thread (above).
Perhaps some sort of register should be set up to record such incidences ...
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Good idea. I wonder if there's a councillor who lives locally who might be prepared to do that?
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We consulted King's when we were thinking of renting out our flat a couple of years ago but made it very clear we were only weighing our options and only wanted their opinion. They were very pushy and we said we would contact them if we needed them, mainly to be polite. We agreed between ourselves that we would never use them.
A couple of days later, they called to say they had shown details of our flat to a few people who wanted to come and look at it. This was all done without our permission. Furious, I told them to delete all our details and to never contact me again.
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It's a real drag when someone lets all the tyres down on a car, especially if you're in a hurry to get to the next real estate meeting. And it is not a criminal offence.
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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Elin, as well as reporting them as you were considering, can I suggest a chat with Trading Standards. And perhaps also with campaigning organisations in the housing field. Plainly, there's a need for some hard, accurate information.
Because this may be a genuine, one-off mistake. Or that well known phenomenon "the rogue trader". The person who - entirely unrepresentative of their profession - acts recklessly, damaging both clients and the firm which employs them.
But if any estate agents are regularly making such misrepresentations the practice needs exposing.
Personally I can't see very much ethical difference between what you've described and various dubious practices for misselling; or pushing up prices by creating a market "buzz". Not least because - as the Economist told us a couple of weeks ago: "Estate Agents are resurgent" and Forever Blowing Bubbles.
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Permalink Reply by Justin Guest on
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We had something similar after we moved in here a long time back. I walked past Paul Simon (who acted for the seller) months after we moved in and saw out house in the window. For Sale! I pointed this out and it was still there a week ago, marked as Recently Sold. An improvement.
I figured it was not big deal and they were trying to fill their window (as they probably did not have enough properties to market).
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