London letting agents using ghost-listings

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-34525146

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Some letting agents in London are creating fake adverts duplicating pictures of properties to lure prospective renters, a BBC investigation has found.

A regulatory body says the practice, known as ghost-listing, is on the rise because of the "massive shortage of housing" and "huge influx of people".

One homeowner found her own flat marketed for rent on a website.

Lawyer David Smith says the practice is illegal but very difficult to police.

It involves agents stealing listings from competitors' websites, and in some cases using details of homes not currently on the market.

The Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA) said ghost-listing was on the rise because of a lack of rental stock.

David Cox, from the regulatory body, said property that is not available will be used on a website to try and entice members of the public to look at the stock that is.

The practice is illegal under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations, 2008.

Mr Cox said: "We're hearing anecdotal evidence that this is increasing.

"It's in all parts of London, from the high-end properties in central London to average-priced properties in east and south London.

"It's because the agents don't have the stock. There is a massive shortage of housing and a huge influx of people.

"The government statistics suggest for every one house built, four more households are created."

It happened to me

Erica Sciolti from Highbury found her flat had been marketed for rent over the summer, without her knowledge.

She was looking to remortgage and while looking up the value of her home on the property website Zoopla, she found it had been listed for rent a month earlier by an estate agent in Islington called Down2Town.

She was worried it could get her into trouble with her mortgage provider, but also says it left her feeling vulnerable.

"It's our home," she said. "We've been here for so long and to see someone creating a deception around our address feels like our home has been stolen to a certain extent."

Mr Smith, from Antony Gold Solicitors, said the practice is known in the industry as "bait and switch"; offering something that does not exist, then substituting it at a later date with an alternative, possibly inferior, product.

He said: "If someone is induced to see a property that doesn't exist, they then may be so desperate by that point they'll take an inferior product they would never normally have taken, or they'll be prepared to pay too much money for it.

"People are already talking about how the market in London is overheated. This just distorts it further."

The BBC found the same thing had happened to two other flats in Ms Sciolti's block.

In one instance there were three different properties being marketed on Down2Town's website, all in different locations, all using the same set of photographs.

'Impossible to police'

The BBC has approached Down2Town for an explanation but has had no response.

Trading Standards is responsible for enforcing the law on this, but as Mr Cox explains "it's almost impossible to police".

"These listings will look exactly the same as any genuine listing. Unless someone actually notices 'that is my property' they're probably never going be found."

The private rented sector is largely unregulated and many want to see greater regulation of the industry to stamp out such practices.

Both Zoopla and Right Move have responded to calls they should be doing more to police their sites and weed out fake listings.

They say they are aware of the problem and monitor for this type of activity. Both say they have removed content that is not genuine, and would look to take action against agents who are repeatedly breaching regulations.

A Department for Communities and Local Government spokesman said: "The government is determined to crack down on rogue landlords and letting agents. That is why we have already made it a legal requirement for letting agents in England to belong to one of three government-approved redress schemes, ensuring that complaints are dealt with.

"Our Housing Bill will go further, strengthening councils' powers to tackle rogue letting agents, including blacklisting those who have been convicted of serious offences and seeking banning orders for the most prolific offenders."