Watchdog raps property website for “misleading” claims

The website listing suggested each property for sale would fetch affiliates a one-off £2,000 sales commission, while each rental property offered a one-off sales commission of up to £100.

The message on the website read: “If we don't sell a listing within 12 weeks, we'll pay you £100 compensation every week until we do! This is your opportunity to earn £250,000.00 in just 25 weeks with NO; selling; risk; experience; knowledge; special skills or referring required.”

It added that income is "guaranteed against failure".

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

PropertyWikia provided the ASA with details of the total numbers of properties that were going into negotiation, under offer or further advanced in the sales cycle from July to November 2011.

The business told the ASA that there were currently no properties older than 12 weeks and to date, they had not paid anyone £100 in compensation. It also said that no affiliates had been with them for more than six months in order to reach the 25-week point.

PropertyWikia confirmed that they had been asked by some affiliates when commission would be paid and had also been asked about guaranteed payouts, how they were validated and when they would be due if validation occurred.

However, they also said they had not received any complaints concerning non-payment of commission or compensation because no sale had been made by an affiliate.

They said that the £100 compensation was paid out on the same basis as the commission payments, but only when a £2,000 threshold had been reached.

PropertyWikia confirmed it had refunded over £18,750 back to affiliates who opted out of its business opportunity. The business also failed to provide the ASA with any evidence of affiliates who had so far benefitted from the scheme or made any money from it.

“We concluded that because PropertyWikia had not adequately shown their affiliate scheme had generated any success, the claim that it was "guaranteed against failure" had not been substantiated and was misleading,” said the ASA.

“Further to this, we also noted that PropertyWikia did not provide us with any information on the progress of any specific affiliates nor were they able to provide us with a better understanding of how the affiliate system worked.

“Because we had not seen adequate evidence to support the earnings claims on the PropertyWikia website, we concluded that they had not been substantiated and were misleading.”