This Primary Authority Advice has been produced by Warwickshire County Council Trading Standards Service, in partnership with The Property Ombudsman and Propertymark, for use by member businesses as an aid to complying with the law. If you follow this advice correctly, your local Trading Standards Service should respect this and not ask you to comply with the law in a different way. If you are contacted by a local authority enforcement body, please inform them that you are a member of the scheme.
Question asked:
Two agents (A & B) are instructed on a joint agency agreement to sell a property. Agent A secures an offer on the property that is accepted by the vendor (however the vendor wants both agents to continue to market the property).
‘A’ updates the property page on an internet portal with ‘sold subject to contract’. What should Agent B do to comply with the CPRs, in regard to their own property page on the internet portal?
Assured advice issued:
It is important to consider the instructions from the vendor at this point. If the vendor informs both agents that the property is to be removed from the market, then Agent B should take down their property page on the internet portal and cease marketing.
If the vendor decides that marketing of the property should continue after accepting an offer subject to contract, then Agent B should also make it clear on his property page on the internet portal that the property has been sold, subject to contract.
To avoid consumers becoming confused, it would be sensible for Agent B to add a statement to the internet description, for example, ‘This property is currently sold subject to contract by another agent, however the vendor is still considering offers’.
Agent B should not use any terms that would be misleading, for example ‘another property sold by us’ as this is incorrect and misleading. If Agent B is asked if they have sold the property, then they should clearly state no.
Only Agent A, who has secured the sale, can use additional advertising within his property description, such as ‘Another property sold subject to contract by Agent A’ as this is factually correct
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