{"id":1070,"date":"2013-09-13T15:42:50","date_gmt":"2013-09-13T15:42:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.propertyportfoliosoftware.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1070"},"modified":"2013-09-13T15:42:50","modified_gmt":"2013-09-13T15:42:50","slug":"landlord-and-letting-agent-advertising-crackdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.propertyportfoliosoftware.co.uk\/blog\/landlord-and-letting-agent-advertising-crackdown.html","title":{"rendered":"Landlord and Letting Agent Advertising Crackdown"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Buy to let advertising has been under a lot of scrutiny in recent months<br \/>\nfollowing numerous complaints from consumer watchdogs that many tenants were<br \/>\nbeing ripped off by unfair upfront <a href=\"http:\/\/www.propertyportfoliosoftware.co.uk\/video.letting_agency_fees.html#watch-demo-anchor\">fees<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ruling by ASA<\/strong><br \/>\nSix months ago, the Advertising Standards Commission (ASA) decided that many of<br \/>\nthe advertisements being placed for buy to let properties were not transparent<br \/>\nin quoting various fees. As a result, tenants were being hit by &#8216;hidden&#8217; fees<br \/>\nfor all kinds of things, often cloaked under the ambiguous umbrella of &#8216;admin<br \/>\ncharges&#8217;. Obviously it is not unreasonable for letting agents and landlords to<br \/>\ncharge extra for the cost of producing itineraries and conducting credit<br \/>\nchecks, but unless the upfront fees are clear, many tenants are unable to<br \/>\nbudget for their move and end up suffering financial difficulties when faced<br \/>\nwith an unexpected bill.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Transparent Fees<\/strong><br \/>\nThe ASA has now ruled that all advertisements for buy to let properties must<br \/>\ncarry a clear notification of any up front fees being charged. This will help<br \/>\ntenants understand exactly what they are expected to pay before they move into<br \/>\na property.<\/p>\n<p><strong>A &#8216;Move In&#8217; Price<\/strong><br \/>\nIn an attempt to make the costs of moving into a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.propertyportfoliosoftware.co.uk\/video.creating_property.html#watch-demo-anchor\">rental property<\/a> completely<br \/>\ntransparent, the ASA says landlords and letting agents must give tenants a<br \/>\n&#8216;move in&#8217; price, or in other words state clearly what any extra fees will be<br \/>\non top of the monthly rent.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Online Advertising<\/strong><br \/>\nSince it is a lot more difficult to include details in an online<br \/>\nadvertisement, landlords can offer fee information via an extra link to an<br \/>\nexternal page or state it clearly on their website.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Buy to let advertising has been under a lot of scrutiny in recent months following numerous complaints from consumer watchdogs that many tenants were being ripped off by unfair upfront fees. Ruling by ASA Six months ago, the Advertising Standards &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.propertyportfoliosoftware.co.uk\/blog\/landlord-and-letting-agent-advertising-crackdown.html\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.propertyportfoliosoftware.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.propertyportfoliosoftware.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.propertyportfoliosoftware.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.propertyportfoliosoftware.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.propertyportfoliosoftware.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1070"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.propertyportfoliosoftware.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1070\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1072,"href":"https:\/\/www.propertyportfoliosoftware.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1070\/revisions\/1072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.propertyportfoliosoftware.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.propertyportfoliosoftware.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.propertyportfoliosoftware.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}