The Advertising Standards Authority has let high-end agency Chestertons off the hook after a complainant suggested an advertisement may have been misleading because it did not state the length of the property's lease.
When the ASA investigated, Chestertons' parent company Chesterton Global Ltd claimed it was aware of its obligation to make marketing material clear and unambiguous.
The agency says the duration of the lease on the property concerned is 101 years and 11 months - a fact that would be communicated to any consumer who made contact with the firm. However, the ASA also says Chestertons claims any member of the public reading their ad would generally know that all flats in England were leasehold rather than freehold, and would then have contacted their sales branch for more information.
The ASA's judgement, rejecting the complaint, says that it understands the importance of lease length being made public because of its relevance in securing a mortgage.
However the ASA says it considered that omitting that information from the ad would only be misleading if it was likely to affect a buyer's decision to enquire further about the purchase of the property. We considered that the number of years remaining on the lease in this case was sufficient to ensure that it would not affect a buyer's ability to obtain a mortgage.
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