BAN ESTATE AGENTS BOARDS from the High Street.

[leenewham]

You can do it, Hammersmith and Fulham have: http://www.lbhf.gov.uk/Directory/News_A ... oards.asp

Kensington and Chelsea did too, but have just allowed them back.

Read this:http://www.estateagenttoday.co.uk/News/ ... s_features

Notice the comments, it seems to be a very popular policy, if any politicians are reading this! Chris, Liam?

There were over 40 in the high street when I last counted them. They stay up far longer than the 14 days permitted. They don't remove the wood brackets (over 50 of these have been left on buildings after signs have been removed) and cause lasting damage to buildings.

If Estate agents care so little for how our high streets look or the buildings they pay £15 to put them up on (and £10 to remove), and don't bother removing them, then take away the privilege.

All other forms of advertising have to get consent (aside from some permitted).

I've seen estate agents boards put up in Sydenham to say it has been sold.

What do you think?

What if a local estate agents led the way in calling for the ban to level the paying field?

[Annie.]

I agree Lee, they make Sydenham look like everyone is taking part in a mass exodus! Time to regulate them, when I go somewhere on holiday ii always look around the area (as you do) and if I see lots of boards up I think what's wrong here then? Is there a motorway/ large demolition about to be carried out? Or is it just a bad area to live

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[Eagle]

Why stop at the high street. Boards should be banned full stop. Also can advertise an empty property.

Surely all house buyers look on internet nowadays.

[Tim Lund]

Why stop at the high street. Boards should be banned full stop. Also can advertise an empty property.

Surely all house buyers look on internet nowadays.

A point made in the link Lee gave

Ed Mead, of Douglas & Gordon, said: “My view is very strongly that boards should be banned – period.

“I think they are a blight and they are just used to advertise the agency. Why on earth, at a cost of £6 a board, should an agent be able to blight a street when everything is done on the web these days?

But Lee, you need to think how this could work. It's not the existence of regulations that matter, whether the current 14 day rule or a complete ban, but who's going to do the enforcing. I don't think Lewisham has the enforcement officers anymore, so they are not going to help. If you could get local Estate Agents together to agree on some kind of self-regulation, it would still require some enforcement, and someone would have to pick up the cost. Do you know of anywhere that such self-regulation has worked? If so how?

[leenewham]

Tim, ask Hammersmith and Fulham or Chelsea councils.

Infact, I will ask on Monday, I'm meeting pretty much all of them!

But aside from asking how to enforce it, which has been done elsewhere so it is possible, what do you think Tim? Do you think we should try to ban them, do you think it will be harmful to the estate agents or will property never get sold and we will end up with more empty property?

[SE26bloke]

They're an eysore but they don't get in anyone's way. I'm more concerned about businesses blocking the pavement outside their premises with special offers boards.

[marymck]

Thank you Lee for starting such an important thread.

I completely agree with everything you say and Annie makes a really good point. When you look round an area and see loads of sale or letting boards you immediately think something must be wrong with the area or oh oh something wicked this way comes.

Often too they cause real damage to buildings. The people who put up these signs on behalf of agents use six inch nails, hammered in with no care and (if the signs are ever removed) just wrenched out.

Often the damage isn't immediately obvious. But where a rendered wall is involved water gets behind the render and damages the fabric of the building.

Our brick garden wall has been virtually destroyed by a series of agents advertising the house next door. Now every winter frost action causes a bit more brick to sheer away.

IMO nothing makes our streets and buildings look shabbier than cracked render and a plethora of estate agent signs.

No single action would have such an instant impact on improving the look of an area than banning these damned things.

[Tim Lund]

Tim, ask Hammersmith and Fulham or Chelsea councils.

Infact, I will ask on Monday, I'm meeting pretty much all of them!

But aside from asking how to enforce it, which has been done elsewhere so it is possible, what do you think Tim? Do you think we should try to ban them, do you think it will be harmful to the estate agents or will property never get sold and we will end up with more empty property?

I'd be surprised if it wasn't just a matter of finding the resources to pay some to enforce the rules. Simply a question of Council priorities. I was thinking more about what can be done with a Council with other priorities.

[Tim Lund]

IMO nothing makes our streets and buildings look shabbier than cracked render and a plethora of estate agent signs.

No single action would have such an instant impact on improving the look of an area than banning these damned things.

Could you and other SydSoc members do some direct action here? Maybe some of us on the Forum? I mean just remove them. How about reporting them on LoveLewisham? Would the police stop us?

[marymck]

Could you and other SydSoc members do some direct action here? Maybe some of us on the Forum? I mean just remove them. How about reporting them on LoveLewisham? Would the police stop us?

Why single out SydSoc members here Tim?

Not everyone who lives in Sydenham is a SydSoc member?

Some people on this forum are actually estate agents and the boards are their property. We would get in trouble if we removed them. The estate agents won't even pay for the damage to our property (believe me, I've tried).

I have also asked estate agents to remove the boards. One estate agent has a particularly huge "sold" board in upper Sydenham on a building they bought, though they didn't sell it. They won't do anything.

I will look into reporting them on the Love Lewisham web site. Good idea, Tim. Please can you and other forum posters do the same?

[Tim Lund]

Could you and other SydSoc members do some direct action here? Maybe some of us on the Forum? I mean just remove them. How about reporting them on LoveLewisham? Would the police stop us?

Why single out SydSoc members here Tim?

Not everyone who lives in Sydenham is a SydSoc member?

We'll, it's a bit of a tease, so I added 'some of us on the Forum'

Some people on this forum are actually estate agents and the boards are their property. We would get in trouble if we removed them.

How? What law would we be breaking? Would the police step in? Do we have a solicitor in the house?

[leenewham]

If they have been there more then 14 days they are unlawful.

I'm not sure if they are owned by the estate agents, they tend to be put up by companies who also print them (as I understand).

Companies like these:

http://www.signsupessex.com/about
http://www.kremersigns.co.uk

For more info on the riles and regulations on Estate Agents boards look at this:
http://www.homestagingconsultants.co.uk ... boards.htm

Apparently viewing goes up 50% with a sale board according to the article. Yet when I sold my flat in 2001 I didn't have one and sold it in 30 minutes. I had 15 viewings on day 1 with a queue out the door.

[leenewham]

10. Agents are allowed to display only one board, no bigger than half a square metre per property, but joint agents often skirt round the rules by erecting two boards on one post facing opposite directions. Some agents, such as Douglas & Gordon, have been calling for a ban on for sale boards altogether. Boards have already been banned in conservation areas, most notably parts of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.

3. But not all boards are selling homes. In an illegal practice known as "fly-boarding", some agents put up boards to make themselves look busy and successful.

I've seen a well know local estate agents (who apparently are very good at letting) do this (no3).

[marymck]

Also, have you noticed how they put SOLD in huge type and in tiny, tiny little letters (if at all) stc ... for "subject to contract". So if the contract doesn't go ahead, potential buyers just think "oh oh something wrong with that house then."

This happened to us when we sold our last house. It turns out the people had put in an offer as a sort of "holding move" while they looked elsewhere.

None of the houses that get sold in Mount Gardens seem to have signs. Yet they're really sought after.

It's just free (or incredibly cheap) advertising for the estate agents.

Perhaps one of the offending estate agents in our area would care to comment on here and explain why they leave their signs on longer than the legal 14 days following completion/letting? And perhaps they can inform us how we can go about claiming compensation for the damage their contractors are doing to the fabric of Sydenham's buildings?

[Tim Lund]

Perhaps one of the offending estate agents in our area would care to comment on here and explain why they leave their signs on longer than the legal 14 days following completion/letting?

Because all people who are bothered by it will do is come on here to kvetch, and not take direct action because they think, for some unspecified reason, they'd get into trouble?

[CaptainCarCrash]

Because all people who are bothered by it will do is come on here to kvetch, and not take direct action because they think, for some unspecified reason, they'd get into trouble?

I do wonder if there are people who drive past building with adverts on the outside that write down the info and go and make further enquiries?

I doubt you'd get away with it because it could backfire and the high street could end up looking.........

[marymck]

ecause all people who are bothered by it will do is come on here to kvetch, and not take direct action because they think, for some unspecified reason, they'd get into trouble?

Speak for yourself! I have complained to estate agents, I have tried to get them to pay for damage they caused to my property. On the one occasion when we did remove one from our wall - because we'd do it more gently and were sooo fed up, another one appeared - banged in with even more nails - in next to no time.

Who do you think owns these boards Tim? They are not our property and we can't go around interfering with other people's property. When I have time I will investigate the law and specify the reason, for your information.

[leenewham]

Aren't there teams who go down the high street and remove fly posting?
Same thing isn't it?

Then we can bill the estate agents for taking them down. Lets be fait though, we will only charge £10 for each one the same the companies who are paid to do it charge.

There is about £500 worth of business in the high street in that case.

How about this as an idea:

Rather than banning them, change the law so that they can be erected, but not if fixed to the walls with nails or screws or other damaging fixings to walls with the same fine for using a hosepipe in times of a drought: £1000 if caught.

[marymck]

Good idea Lee.

[Tim Lund]

Who do you think owns these boards Tim? They are not our property and we can't go around interfering with other people's property.

Can we not consider them as litter? If some thoughtless person casually threw a KFC box in your garden, you'd not hesitate to dispose of it, even though it might have a few chips left in it which weren't rightfully your property.

When I have time I will investigate the law and specify the reason, for your information.

Not just for my benefit - for everyone on the Forum please!

I think this could be just the sort of campaign SydSoc needs to show that it's not losing its radical edge. Emabarrassed I never suggested it when I was its Chair