Background

Summary of Council decision:

Two issues were investigated, both of which were Upheld.

Ad description

Claims on Camborne Properties Ltd website http://grovehousemanchester.co.uk, seen in June 2016, stated "Grove House Manchester ... 2 Bed - From £650 pcm ... Safety and Security ... Manned concierge desk ...".

Issue

The complainant challenged whether the following claims were misleading and could be substantiated:

1. "2 Bed - From £650 pcm", because no properties were available at that price; and

2. "Manned concierge desk".

Response

Camborne Properties Ltd trading as Harper Brooks acknowledged the complaint, but did not respond further to the ASA's enquiries.

Assessment

1. & 2. Upheld

The ASA noted Camborne Properties had acknowledged the complaint, but we were concerned by their lack of any further response and apparent disregard for the Code, which was a breach of CAP Code (Edition 12) rule  1.7 1.7 Any unreasonable delay in responding to the ASA's enquiries will normally be considered a breach of the Code.  (Unreasonable delay). We reminded them of their responsibility to provide a substantive response to our enquiries and told them to do so in future.

We considered that consumers would understand the claim “2 bed - From £650 pcm” to mean that a selection of the two-bedroom apartments in the building would be available to rent at that price. We also considered that the claim “Manned concierge desk” gave the impression that service was available in the building. However, we saw no evidence to support either claim. For that reason we considered that the claims “2 bed - From £650 pcm” and “Manned concierge desk” had not been substantiated and were therefore misleading.

The ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules  3.1 3.1 Marketing communications must not materially mislead or be likely to do so.  (Misleading advertising) and 3.7 (Substantiation).

Action

The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told Camborne Properties Ltd to ensure that they held evidence to substantiate claims in their advertising. We referred the matter to CAP's Compliance team.

CAP Code (Edition 12)

1.7     3.1     3.3    


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