Watchdog turns down house price complaint
Advertising Standards Authority refuses to act on "offers-over" house prices
The Scottish Consumer Council is calling on the Office of Fair Trading and The Law Society of Scotland to investigate after the Advertising Standards Authority said it will not act on "offers-over" house prices.
The ASA says that buyers should view an "offers-over" price as a reserve similar to that in an auction.
The ruling was made following a complaint from Edinburgh buyer Gordon Wright about artificially low "offers-over" prices of property after a house in West Linton advertised at offers over £65,000 was valued at £140,000 and sold for £143,000. A second house in Edinburgh was on the market at offers over £95,000 but was independently valued at £180,000.
The ASA said that the advertisement did not mislead and that it will not investigate other similar advertisements unless it believes the facts to differ significantly from that case.
However the Scottish Consumer Council has expressed its unhappiness at the decision and has asked the Law Society to look into it.
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