The estate agents who labelled a house on Rightmove with the reference ‘lesbians’ have been rapped by the disciplinary panel of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.
The Bury St Edmunds branch of Jackson-Stops & Staff in Suffolk had been selling a property for Suzanne Richards and Sarah Dobinson. They discovered that the word ‘lesbians’ was at the bottom of the Rightmove advertisement for their house, in the space normally reserved for a reference number. When the couple complained, they were apparently told in an email: “We fail to see how we have discriminated against you.”
Last July, they received £5,000 in an out-of-court settlement but the matter was not over until this month, when the firm appeared before the RICS disciplinary panel, charged with failing to act with integrity. The panel found the charge proved.
A rule of the RICS is that member firms should never identify clients by any reference to gender, disability, race or sexual orientation.
The panel heard that the word ‘lesbians’ had been inserted into the reference line on Rightmove by a junior member of staff. The firm had issued a full apology to the pair, paid damages, and implemented equality and diversity training for all staff. The firm, which had not breached disciplinary rules before, had also introduced a new checking system for entries on websites.
The panel reprimanded the firm over the incident, but decided not to impose a fine. However, it did award costs of £3,572.
Reprimand for agents who outed lesbians on Rightmove
Latest Features
-
Industry Views - Airbnb Crackdown - this time it's not just Michael Gove...
It’s tempting to think that Michael Gove’s proposed clampdown on Airbnb-style...
-
The scandal of empty homes as councils stand to make additional £540m
Councils across England could make an additional £540m a year in...
-
Expert tips on how conveyancers can mitigate risk of negligence claims
The vast majority of negligence claims against conveyancers are for relatively...
Sponsored Content
-
Client money accounting made easy with PayProp ...
A client account is essential to your lettings business, but the...
-
Your website should be your hardest working employee ...
Agent websites have become more crucial than ever in attracting new...
-
.png)
Alto customers are integrating with Canopy to save time...
In this interview, Riccardo Dawson, Chief Operating Officer at Alto and...
-
Property Natter - An Englishman's home is his castle.....more or less!
Interesting report this week in Estate Agent Today on an analysis...
-
AML warning as hundreds of agents hit with HMRC fines
An anti-money laundering (AML) expert has queried why there is a...
-
%20A%20property%20tale%20for%20our%20times.png)
A Property Tale For Our Times - and it doesn't end well
If you want to hear of a tale for our industry’s...
-
MPs launch inquiry into home buying and selling process
MPs have launched an inquiry on improving the home buying and...
-
Law Society faces backlash over material information forms
The Law Society is facing backlash from conveyancers after issuing new...
-
Lord Best: ROPA reforms won't break the bank for agents
Further estate agency regulation won’t be too expensive for the industry,...
60 second interview
Jake Gann, Sales Director at Bamboo Auction
Who are you and what does it say on...
Ashley Day - Director of Bristol Property Centre
Who are you, and what does it say on...
Graham Paterson ‘Co-founder and CEO of Jitty’
Who are you and what does it say on your...
Comments
Excellent site. It was pleasant to me.
Perfect work!
Great site. Keep doing.
I want to say - thank you for this!
Great work,webmaster,nice design!
It is the coolest site, keep so!
If you have to do it, you might as well do it right.
Excellent site. It was pleasant to me.
Perfect work!
Very interesting site. Hope it will always be alive!
Great site. Keep doing.
I want to say - thank you for this!
Great work,webmaster,nice design!
It is the coolest site, keep so!
Very cute :-))))
Great. Now i can say thank you!
If you have to do it, you might as well do it right.
I bookmarked this link. Thank you for good job!
Excellent site. It was pleasant to me.
Perfect work!
Very interesting site. Hope it will always be alive!
Great site. Keep doing.
I want to say - thank you for this!
This is the welcome page for the dietguidance.us Association web site.
This is the welcome page for the dentaldoctor.us Association web site.
Perfect work!
You might think it, but you should never say it. What does it matter? Idiots.
Considering that they own a house together Big G, it's extrmely unlikely they are actually hiding the fact they are an item...and why should they?? They knew this would go public as soon as they took action against these losers.
Disgraceful behaviour from whoever is responsible. They will happily collect the fee for the sale, but disrespect their customer in a pathetic manner before/while doing so.
Imagine the horror of the Branch Manager on discovering that his Administrator had copied his careless notes word for word upon uploading the new instruction! But I'll bet the Administrator's the one that's lost their job...
Sounds like they really rubbed them up the wrong way!