A letting agency has been prosecuted following so-called ‘ghost listing’ on Zoopla flats that were actually not able to be let.
Down2Town Ltd of Islington and director Ilshad Ali Sumum, were fined £6,600 after being found guilty at Highbury Corner Magistrates Court.
Trading standards
Islington council’s trading standards team was notified last year, after a resident saw that their home was listed for rent on the Zoopla website. This was despite the property not actually been available to be let.
Further investigations revealed that the letting agent had an unwritten agreement with a landlord to let a separate property in the same block, near to Holloway Road.
However, the letting agent proceeded to wrong list other flats in the block as being available to let-including the property that the concerned resident was living in.
As a result of the fraudulent listings, the block of flats was kept near the top of the search results on the Zoopla website.
Letting agency prosecuted for ‘ghost-letting’
Guilty
At Highbury Corner Magistrates Court, Mr Sumum pleaded guilty to a brace of offences under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008.
Both Sumum and Down2Town Ltd were each fined £2,000, ordered to pay costs of £1,250 and a victim surcharge of £100.
A council spokesman noted, ‘flats were falsely being advertised for sale, a practice sometimes also known as ghost-listing. This not only misled those looking for homes to rent, but also caused understandable distress among the residents who discovered their homes were being marketed without their knowledge or consent.’[1]
[1] https://www.lettingagenttoday.co.uk/breaking-news/2016/6/agency-fined-by-council-for-ghost-listing-flats-to-let-on-zoopla