Property

An online listing for a property was listed as being a three bed house.
The advertisement stated:
“3 Bed. 1 Bath.”

Under the description heading it included the following statements:
“3 Bedroom, 1 Bathroom Mid Terrace Cottage”

“Tucked away in the historic heart of North Strand, this charming three-bedroom mid-terrace cottage …”

“The layout includes three bedrooms and a family bathroom, making it a practical home for a family or anyone seeking a comfortable city residence.”

The complainant considered the description of the property as a three bed was misleading as after viewing the property, they considered it was a two bed. They said that one of the bedrooms had a curtained off area that they did not consider would have been big enough to fit a bed.

The advertisers said that the property in question was a small cottage in Dublin and the space that was being advertised as a bedroom was originally a bedroom. They said that the family had opened up the wall into the second space and it was used as a bedroom.

The advertisers said they had rectified the property listing on all platforms to state two bedrooms instead of a three bed.

Complaint Upheld

The Complaints Council considered the detail of the complaint and the advertisers’ response.

While acknowledging that the property had originally been constructed as a three-bedroom cottage, the Council noted that the property had since been re-configured to a two-bedroom house and that it was in this latter configuration at the time of advertising. Furthermore, the Council 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 Council 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.