(estate agent) Sold signs

[the-e-dealer]

They pay about ?30 to put up school fair adverts. This is nice for the School but I had to then chase them after the fair had been and gone 6 months ago.

[seanmlow]

They are actually allowed to leave them up for 2 weeks post completion, no more.

[the-e-dealer]

and then what? The Board Squad come out and nick them?!

[seanmlow]

No, you can ask for them to be removed. If they are not, call trading standards. Or, if you actually have better thing to do, thrown them away. Easy.

[ruffers]

If any councillor wants to stand with a policy of banning them they've got my vote.

[Mick Mac]

giggirl Wrote:

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> Why not print up some advertisements of your own

> for, I dunno, a bake sale or something, and run

> down Lordship Lane fly posting them on all the

> estate agents' windows. Turn the tables so to

> speak.

Nice one GG.

[binary_star]

If anyone has one of these knocking around I'll happily come and collect it (you'll need to take it down first). I need about 10 for a project.

[Jakido]

Winkworth have had a sign up for 2 months after neighbours moved in.

The tenants had taken it down so we asked Winkworth to come and get - they sent someone round who put it back up again with a LET sign on it!

[Salsaboy]

In the past I have taken them down and then posted them through the agents letter box so that the sign bit is sticking out.

A mate of mine sawed one up into little bits and then took it back to the agents office in a bin liner.

[Bonfire2010]

Pedder left a 'sold' one up outside our house for 3 months after the sale they had worked on fell through and we had disinstructed them.

[SoozieW]

I hate them though realise they serve a purpose. The road just looks so scruffy with them and I'd like to see smaller more discrete ones.

[Villager]

I use the plastic sheets from these bill-boards to make roofs for bird nesting boxes and other purposes. So if you are not too far from Gilkes Crescent, I will come round, take the sign down and remove the sheets.

Estate agents have to pay the sign contractors to take them down so they are worthless scrap. The agents rely on the new occupants to dispose of them.

Please PM with the address.

Vic

[edcam]

I genuinely think they should be banned. They're a blight and don't really serve any useful purpose. I don't think there are many people househunting that don't just do it online nowadays. It's just free advertising.

[cactus]

There's approximately a dozen at Altima Court on East Dulwich Road at the moment.

Winkworth appear to be the worst offenders, I'm tempted to chop the lot down.

[newboots]

Winkworth: I rang Winkworth about a Let & Managed By Winkworth sign on a neighbouring property once. It is up all year round, come rain come shine.

I told the woman who answered the phone that they should only be up for 2 weeks after a new tenancy has been agreed. She replied that the office saw those signs as "free advertising" and put the phone down on me.

Fair dos, but on the back of that we shan't be appointing Winkworth as our EA when we sell.

[fizzmoll]

One thing I never understood is why estate agents don't put a QR code on those signs. So that you could just snap it with your phone and navigate straight to their web page with the relevant details. Estate agents == Luddites?

[OutOfFocus]

Nostalgia. When I first bought a house it was considered acceptable to find a house with a for sale sign and knock on the door to look at the house. Then go to the estate agents if you were interested. Now find this hard to believe.

Nowadays if you see a board, depending on the time of year it is more likely to advertise a school fete or artist open house. I agree they have lost their usefulness.

[worldwiser]

Haart have admitted in writing to me that they don't automatically remove boards. The implication being that they expect owners to do it or that they are happy with flouting the Town and Country Planning Act. Either way, totally unacceptable.

[PSJ]

I think it is Haart that have had one outside of Dulwich Lawn Close for about a year, maybe more. You can actually see the rust.

Disgraceful.

There should be 'remove by' dates on these boards.

[Nigello]

Take a pic, add the @handle of the estate agent and add that of the local paper or Metro etc. I think it might work if you've tried all other methods.

[ruffers]

Bonfire2010 Wrote:

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> Pedder left a 'sold' one up outside our house for

> 3 months after the sale they had worked on fell

> through and we had disinstructed them.

We've had one a couple of times on the border of our property as they sold a neighbour's house. I kind of live and let live with For Sale, but as soon as it says Sold I pull it down.

Agreed with someone above on the blocks of flats with lots of signs on. They almost need in the design stage an area where signs could be, and only one for each agent which can say how many flats for sale.

As a side note on a drunken student night in Kingston a friend and I took down over twenty of these signs and stuck them in the loft. When we moved out the estate agent found most of them were theirs and was a bit reluctant to give us our deposit back...

[spark67]

we live in a three-flat building,when a place is sold or let, they bang the post into the small wall at the front with nails, even when the seller asks them not to, and now some bricks are loose after the years of hammering in large nails, apparently it had to be rebuilt the year before we moved in because of this. Now, as we own the freehold, I tend to ring if they do it again and say they will be charged for damage, it gets moved. Also we ask anyone selling or renting to request they use ties and a post to advertise and not the wall at all as any damage will incur a charge from the management company. They have obliged so far.

[PeckhamNicola]

In the block of flats I used to live in we had an oocasional estate agent's sign up despite NONE of the flats being for sale. Opportunistic so and so's.

[Technique]

What annoys me even more than the boards is when they take them down and leave the nails sticking out of the walls!

I have a small terrier and he has nearly had his eye put out by a rusty nail - Oakhurst Grove is rife with them. Who would you sue then? The homeowner I daresay - as it is their wall and there is no board left to identify the culprit.

When it happened I sent a letter to all of the local Estate Agents, asking them to ensure the boards are safely removed. Guess what; no change...

[James Barber]

You are most at risk of being burgled in the first 6 months of moving into a property. These signs I suspect add to that risk.

Remove them.

I wonder if people could write a letter explaining the estate agent haas one week to remove them before rent will be charged.

Any lawyers who can tell us how to write such a letter successfully?

Longer-term I'll ask if Southwark council could obtain permission to just ban the flaming things. Under thE Localism Act it could seek this power.