Advertisment
The advertisement appeared on a property website and featured images of a house which was detailed as being a detached, two-storey residence with three bedrooms and two bathrooms.
The written description described the property as being an “architecturally designed B3-rated 3-bedroom (currently laid out as two bedrooms) home built c.2017 measuring approx. 91 sq.mt.”
Complaint
The complainant considered it misleading to advertise the house as a three-bedroom property when it only had two bedrooms.
Response
The advertisers replied to the request for comment explaining that the advertisement had been de-activated.
Conclusion
Complaint Upheld.
The Complaints Committee considered the detail of the complaint and the advertisers’ response. The Committee noted that the advertisement had since been de-activated.
While acknowledging that the property had originally been constructed as a three-bedroom house, the Committee noted that the property had since been laid out in a two-bedroom configuration and that it was in this latter configuration at the time of advertising. Furthermore, the Committee noted that as the house was categorised within the subheading of the advertisement as being a three-bedroom house, this would have led to it appearing when consumers specifically searched for three-bedroom houses. In the light of this, the Complaints Committee considered that the advertisement had the potential to mislead consumers and therefore had breached the Code at sections 4.01, 4.04, 4.09 and 4.10.
ACTION REQUIRED:
The advertisement must not reappear in its current form. Care should be taken by advertisers to ensure that the initial description of a property being advertised is not contradicted in the more detailed information provided under the property description information.
