Two advertising issues concerning SpicerHaart Estate Agents Ltd have investigated, both of which were upheld by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).

A leaflet stated “If your agent isn’t marketing your house properly they won’t get you the best price … haart Estate Agents of Dereham achieved an average of 100% of our asking prices in the last 3 months *Data source – Spicerhaart YOY Market Movement Analysis 2013”.

Meanwhile, claims on www.rightmove.co.uk stated “The facts speak for themselves … It’s a sellers [sic] market … +1138 We have hundreds of people on our books looking for houses in our area*… 99.80% Of asking prices achieved on properties we have sold in the last 3 months*”. The asterisks linked to smaller print stating “*Source: spicerhaart data in house Dec 2013”.

The complainant, Hammondlee Ltd, challenged whether “haart Estate Agents of Dereham achieved an average of 100% of our asking prices in the last 3 months” in the leaflet and “99.80% Of asking prices achieved on properties we have sold in the last 3 months*” on the Rightmove website were misleading and could be substantiated.

SpicerHaart Estate Agents Ltd provided a data set from the Dereham branch listing the market price and agreed sale price of all properties sold during the three months prior to ad (a) being sent. They said that the data showed that the average agreed sales price as a percentage of the market price for those three months was 100.62%. They also provided a set of data from the Dereham branch listing the market price and agreed sale price of all properties sold for the three months prior to ad (b) being seen. They confirmed that ad (b) was updated on a monthly basis. They said that the data showed that the agreed sales price as a percentage of the asking price was 100.78% for the relevant period. They explained that, in both cases, where the market price was a range between two figures, the lower of the two figures was used, as the basis of the claims.

The ASA considered that consumers would interpret the claims to mean that the market price related to one price that the vendor had, on average, achieved 100% of from ad (a) or 98.80% of from ad (b). However, it noted that ad (b) did not state that the percentage was an average for all houses sold.

It also noted that, in the majority of cases, the market price had been expressed as a range between two figures, and SpicerHaart had used the lower of the two figures when calculating the average percentage. The ASA considered that, if a consumer was selling their house, they would want to achieve the higher price in the range, which it noted was not the case for any of the houses sold.

The ASA also noted that the text on the ad (a) stated “If your agent isn’t marketing your house properly they won’t get you the best price” and ad (b) stated “The facts speak for themselves … It’s a seller’s market”. It considered that the text contributed to the impression that the houses were being sold at the best market price. Because the ad watchdog considered that the evidence was not adequate to support the impression that single asking prices had been achieved for the percentage of sales stated, it concluded the ad was misleading.

The ads breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 3.1 and 3.3 (Misleading advertising) and 3.7 (Substantiation).

SpicerHaart was told the ad must not appear in its current form. The ASA told SpicerHaart Estate Agents Ltd to ensure they were in a position to substantiate claims about the prices they had achieved.