Top online agency challenged over claim about fees and sales

Online agency Yopa says it will change a claim on its website that appears to suggest no fee will be charged if a customer’s property is not actually sold. 

The change is to take place following an intervention by the Advertising Standards Authority. 

A spokesperson for the authority has told Estate Agent Today: “We received one complaint which challenged whether a website ad for Yopa … was misleading.

“The complainant challenged whether the ad was misleading because it stated ‘You’ll only pay one fee, and it’s fixed from the beginning. There are no surprises, and we never add commission’.” 

The ad went on to say “Choose to pay our fair fixed fee only when your home is sold” but it failed to mention that if the property was not sold at all, the fee would still be taken from the vendor after 10 months."

The ASA spokesperson told EAT: “The advertiser provided assurance that they would amend the ad to include a suitable qualification clarifying that the fee will need to be paid within 10 months even if the property has not been sold. On that basis, we considered this case to be informally resolved.”

In its most recent filing at Companies House, Yopa reported  a £17.8m pre-tax loss for the calendar year ending December 31 2019, although within that year revenue rose 22 per cent from £6,857,065 in full year 2018 to £8,350,750 in 2019.