Like Mushrooms After The Rain - Estate Agents Boards

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Argh! Another reason to hate Estate Agents...

Yesterday morning, a giant LIME GREEN estate agents board just appeared on the front of my house. Saying "This property let be Ernest and Frank" with a number (no, I'm not google proofling, I'm perfectly happy to explose these bloody tricks).

Now I know that *I* have not let my flat lately, I own it. I checked with my upstairs neighbour (who also owns her flat) and *she* has not let her flat.

Now if it were a "For Let" sign, that would be one thing - but this is just blatant advertising on MY PROPERTY for a service that they have not rendered me. Bloody cheeky!

I called the number on the board to complain, but did not get a call back. My upstairs neighbour called, and found out that only the Freeholder can apply to have these things removed.

Short of getting up on a ladder and removing the thing myself (to say nothing of the holes they've knocked in our brickwork) how can you get rid of these things? Call the council? Help!

Also, complain about the proliferation of estate agent signs.

― The Long Grey And Overcast Tea Time Of The Soul (kate), Thursday, 11 January 2007 11:12 (nineteen years ago)

Maybe I'll give them another call. Squeaky wheel gets the grease and all that.

― The Long Grey And Overcast Tea Time Of The Soul (kate), Thursday, 11 January 2007 11:14 (nineteen years ago)

That is bollocks, they have trespassed on the property and vandalised it. Options:

Call the estate agent pretending to the freeholder.

Call the council, no idea which department, get them an ASBO.

― Ed (dali), Thursday, 11 January 2007 11:16 (nineteen years ago)

Called them again, they have my number, just ignoring me. If they've not got in touch by tomorrow, I'll go to the council.

― The Long Grey And Overcast Tea Time Of The Soul (kate), Thursday, 11 January 2007 11:17 (nineteen years ago)

Ah, I have found This Article that means they could be fined £18,000 if they do not take it down. That's a good threat.

― The Long Grey And Overcast Tea Time Of The Soul (kate), Thursday, 11 January 2007 11:19 (nineteen years ago)

We don't know what to do with ours, it was still out the front weeks after we'd moved in. We called the estate agent (who's based about 15 miles away) and she said she'd call us back. Then it blew down in the strong winds and one of the other neighbours put it out into the back garden. It's still there.

Does it belong to us?

― Rumpsy Pumpsy (Rumpie), Thursday, 11 January 2007 11:20 (nineteen years ago)

Burn it.

― Ed (dali), Thursday, 11 January 2007 11:26 (nineteen years ago)

I am just hoping that ours blows down in strong winds. Though I have found the Lambeth Council phone number for flyposting and graffiti. Even though it's not technically a flyposter, at least they would be able to point me in the right direction. If I've not heard back from them tomorrow, I'm complaining.

― The Long Grey And Overcast Tea Time Of The Soul (kate), Thursday, 11 January 2007 11:28 (nineteen years ago)

I left my sign up for a couple of months after I moved in, naively thinking that they'd come take it away. I came home from a club one night, ripped off my tits, tore the thing down, breaking a fencepost in the process, and just chucked it in the front garden.
Next morning (or afternoon, I should say), once I'd remembered what I'd done, I went to take a look and it was GONE.
Maybe they collected it, or maybe I ate it.

― teh_kit (g-kit), Thursday, 11 January 2007 11:28 (nineteen years ago)

Thing that is so worrying and annoying is that this one is not on a stick. It is actually DRILLED INTO the brickwork of the front of our building. That can NOT be good for it.

― The Long Grey And Overcast Tea Time Of The Soul (kate), Thursday, 11 January 2007 11:29 (nineteen years ago)

there are better things to do with estate agents signs:

http://www.bensbirdboxes.com/

― My Koogy Weighs A Ton (koogs), Thursday, 11 January 2007 11:30 (nineteen years ago)

Often estate agents use a sign-board contractor specifically for putting up their for sale/to let boatrds all over town, and sometimes their contractor gets it wrong and sticks up the sign at the wrong address.

I'd probably go storming into the nearest branch of said estate agent and point out their mistake, insist that the sign was removed within 24 hours, and also demand some serious compensation for the inconvenience to me + trespassing + damage to the brickwork of my house.

I kick ass at complaining.

― C J (C J), Thursday, 11 January 2007 11:48 (nineteen years ago)

It does not appear to have been done "in error" - it is some letting agent who was once involved with the property just deciding to get some free advertising off our backs.

Possibly even the agent who manages the building for the freeholder, don't even know. Can't get anyone to give me any answers - which is what is most frustrating, and likely to drive me to the council.

― The Long Grey And Overcast Tea Time Of The Soul (kate), Thursday, 11 January 2007 12:06 (nineteen years ago)

One time, I came home and found an Estate Agent sign on my HOUSE!

But I looked closer, and it was an advert for the school summer fete, sponsored by Parkas.

Which we had agreed to, and they'd installed it while we were out. Twas a pole in the ground though.

― mark grout (mark grout), Thursday, 11 January 2007 12:15 (nineteen years ago)

Pole in the ground = the Pope?

― C J (C J), Thursday, 11 January 2007 12:21 (nineteen years ago)

OK, my upstairs neighbour has said that she has had no luck getting anywhere with them either. Why would it be the *freeholder* that has to ask to have them removed, not the owners of the flats? Maybe we should start a residents association.

I'll call the council tomorrow.

― The Long Grey And Overcast Tea Time Of The Soul (kate), Thursday, 11 January 2007 12:42 (nineteen years ago)

Just write disparaging comments on the board about the estate agents. They'll take it down soon enough. If you're really lucky, they'll put a fresh one up, and the game can begin again.

― you win again, gravity! (tissp), Thursday, 11 January 2007 12:58 (nineteen years ago)

My upstairs neighbour is threatening to take it down herself.

― The Long Grey And Overcast Tea Time Of The Soul (kate), Thursday, 11 January 2007 12:58 (nineteen years ago)

just came home for lunch and three CDs arrived.

the Oldham tinkers-For Old Time's Sake
Deep Lancashire (a folk compilation)
Fresh Maggots - Hatched

― Ed (dali), Thursday, 11 January 2007 13:07 (nineteen years ago)

Damned wrong thread

― Ed (dali), Thursday, 11 January 2007 13:11 (nineteen years ago)

It's all one thread at the end of the day.

― g00blar (gooblar), Thursday, 11 January 2007 13:11 (nineteen years ago)

In my experience things like this need physical presence to get anything done, i.e. C J's suggestion. Phone calls are just not going to get returned, they will try to blow you off forever. If you really care about getting it taken down expeditiously I'd say you stand more of a chance dealing w/them in person, face to face, than putting complaint into council yada yada yada (which may work in the end but is really a last resort I'd imagine).

― Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Thursday, 11 January 2007 13:15 (nineteen years ago)

Pole in the ground = the Pope?

The ex-pope, surely?

― Forest Pines (ForestPines), Thursday, 11 January 2007 13:16 (nineteen years ago)

I cannot find where the place is located - they don't seem to have a website. Plus, with what time am I going to go down and wait for them?

― The Long Grey And Overcast Tea Time Of The Soul (kate), Thursday, 11 January 2007 13:22 (nineteen years ago)

in the meantime culturejam the sign with a magic marker

― mark s (mark s), Thursday, 11 January 2007 13:25 (nineteen years ago)

I vote for some kind of Banksy-style sticking-it-to-The-Man. Probably by drawing a massive knob on it.

― Johnney B English (stigoftdump), Thursday, 11 January 2007 13:26 (nineteen years ago)

don't forget to turn the Ss into dollar signs

― mark s (mark s), Thursday, 11 January 2007 13:27 (nineteen years ago)

It is on the first floor. I would need a ladder to reach it. And if I had a ladder that tall, I would remove it myself. As my upstairs neighbour is threatening to. Though I don't think she can reach from her window.

― The Long Grey And Overcast Tea Time Of The Soul (kate), Thursday, 11 January 2007 13:28 (nineteen years ago)

we lived in a house once and they put it on the market and an estate agent came round and put up their board, and then almost immediately a second estate agent came round and removed the firsts board and put up their own

the first had been very polite and accomodating, the 2nd were cunts. so we rang the first and told them what had happened and they immediately came round with another of their signs and we helped them get rid of the horrible 2nd estate agents sign

― Storefront Church (688), Thursday, 11 January 2007 13:41 (nineteen years ago)

That sounds like the plotline for a new estate-agent-based reality TV show. Starring Phil and Kirsty, and a ladder.

― C J (C J), Thursday, 11 January 2007 13:45 (nineteen years ago)

Call Watchdog. This sounds like exactly the kind of thing they love.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Thursday, 11 January 2007 13:47 (nineteen years ago)

Wait, "Ernest and Frank"?

― Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Thursday, 11 January 2007 13:48 (nineteen years ago)

Why, Hand - do you know them, or have you dealt with them?

(And I don't mean the cartoon people of similar name.)

― The Long Grey And Overcast Tea Time Of The Soul (kate), Thursday, 11 January 2007 13:49 (nineteen years ago)

These aren't the same people who told mr and mrs hand that their new places was a converted school (It's isn't, it's a fine example of solid 1920s social housing).

― Ed (dali), Thursday, 11 January 2007 13:51 (nineteen years ago)

I just wonder if you yourself are a victim of precisely the class of shenanigans others are urging you to undertake. "Ernest and Frank." They don't mince words do they?

― Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Thursday, 11 January 2007 13:52 (nineteen years ago)

"frank and earnest"

― C J (C J), Thursday, 11 January 2007 13:52 (nineteen years ago)

So they're lying about housing stock, they're whacking up their letting boards on houses that are privately owned... what else are these slimey little pricks into?

How do I blow a whisle on this type of behaviour?

― The Long Grey And Overcast Tea Time Of The Soul (kate), Thursday, 11 January 2007 13:55 (nineteen years ago)

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