Advertisment
Two apartments advertised on daft.ie stated the following:
“Apartment 2 21/22 Broad Street, Waterford City, Co Waterford
€2,000 Per month Apartment to Rent | 2 Beds | 2 Baths”
and
“Apartment 3 21/22 Broad Street, Waterford City, Co Waterford
€2,000 Per month Apartment to Rent | 2 Beds | 2 Baths”
Complaint
The complainant considered the advertisements to misrepresent the advertised properties as the pictures and a description of the apartments were taken from an advertisement of another property letting agent advertising a two bedroom suite in a 5 star Dublin hotel.
Response
The advertisers said that they had searched their database and could not figure out how the photographs got mixed up with this address. They said that they did the apartments in Broad Street to a “nearly like” standard, that they were let and had fetched their asking price. They apologised for any inconvenience caused.
When asked by the ASAI Executive to elaborate on how the photographs of the hotel apartment appeared in their advertisement, they said they firmly believed that the photographs of the hotel apartment had not appeared in the advertising in question. The advertisers did not provide photographs of the apartments they had advertised and did not verify that the photographs displayed in the advertising related to their apartments.
Conclusion
Complaint Upheld
“The Complaints Committee considered the detail of the complaint and the advertisers’ response. They noted the advertisers’ comments in relation to the advertisements.
The Committee concluded that in absence of the evidence that the photographs used in the advertising related to the apartments involved, the advertisement was in breach of the sections 4.1, 4.4, 4.9 and 4.10 of the ASAI Code.
ACTION REQUIRED:
The advertisement must not appear in the current form.