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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask the estate agent to remove their signs?

28 replies

JessieMcJessie · 15/05/2018 13:04

About 5 doors up from me in are two adjacent properties which have Estate Agents’ boards outside them saying “Re-Let by X Agent”. One of the boards has been up for over two months, and I mean that it has been saying “Re-Let” for 2 months- the original “To Let” board ( that I have no issue with) was there for a month before that.

AIBU to think that the agents are taking the piss with what is just free general advertising? I’m surprised that the tenants haven’t asked to have them removed.

I suspect that the agents would tell me to do one if I called and asked them to take them down though. Anyone have any bright ideas?

OP posts:
Original poster
JessieMcJessie · 15/05/2018 19:32

I guess I win the prize for most boring AIBU other Blush

OP posts:
Original poster
JessieMcJessie · 15/05/2018 19:32

ever

OP posts:
wowfudge · 15/05/2018 19:38

Hi OP - I read somewhere recently that there restrictions on how long EA's boards can stay up after a place is let or sold. You could try speaking to the council about it. I don't really see what impact it's having on you though. If you lived in the flats I guess you could go and take the signs down and nobody would bat an eyelid.

EmpressOfSpartacus · 15/05/2018 19:38

I'd guess the agents would only be likely to take them down if the tenants objected. If they really bother you, sneak out at night & take them down?

UnimaginativeUsername · 15/05/2018 19:40

There are restrictions here to stop letting agents keeping their boards up all year round. It tended to happen a lot in the studenty areas and really annoyed everyone.

You could give your local council a call about it. They probably have rules too.

TheCatFromOuterSpace · 15/05/2018 19:40

I took down the sign from my own house and left it outside the estate agent

Midthreademergencynamechange · 15/05/2018 19:41

Estate agent boards are tatty and an eyesore. Yanbu.

Original poster
JessieMcJessie · 15/05/2018 19:42

Thanks wowfudge. I freely admit that their only impact on me is that it annoys me to see the ugly things every time I walk down our street. Don’t mind boards with a purpose, but this is no different to having an ugly pair of billboards in the middle of the street.

OP posts:
Hortonlovesahoo · 15/05/2018 19:44

Our estate agent has a clause in the contract for how long they could have the sign up so it might be worth asking the people that own the house what the deal is. We’ve been stuck with ours for months.

Slowtrain2dawn · 15/05/2018 19:44

Students both sides of us so this happens for several weeks every year. We seem to have very high winds in our street as they often fall down over night....

Angrybird345 · 15/05/2018 19:45

Just call the agents and say they need to be removed ASAP. Withhold your number.

Original poster
JessieMcJessie · 15/05/2018 19:48

Hi Horton no idea how to contact the owners as both properties (flats in converted terraced houses) are tenanted.

OP posts:
wowfudge · 15/05/2018 19:49

I hadn't thought of it looking like a couple of billboards tbh. I'd ring the EA and say you live in the flats and would like the boards to be removed as they've been there for X weeks. They won't know you don't. You can threaten to escalate to the council if they're not gone in a week.

RuskBaby · 15/05/2018 19:49

Call them and ask them to remove them, we had to when renting. It’s free advertising so they aren’t in any rush to remove them.

Original poster
JessieMcJessie · 15/05/2018 19:49

Same agent is always putting notes through our door asking if we want to sell our house. Maybe I’ll call them to say I’m thinking about it then do a bait and switch Wink

OP posts:
SilentBob · 15/05/2018 19:53

I took my board down after a while (sorry, I know a while is not specific but it wasn't a day or 2) and stored it behind the dilapidated shed we inherited as it got on my nerves. As did the shed. Both items are still there. Now masked by the bamboo screen we put up. I firmly believe that the board would still be out and proud if we hadn't moved the bastard.

Foxyloxy1plus1 · 15/05/2018 19:57

I reckon it’s a bit like the signs that go up for road works and traffic cones. Some company comes along and puts them up, but it doesn’t seem as though anyone has responsibility to take them away again. It’s he same with agents. They get someone to put them up, but they don’t bother to get them to take them away. After all, it’s free publicity isn’t it. I think when a house is sold, the new owner probably asks for the board to be taken away, gets fed up when it isn’t and dismantles it themselves and gets rid. Perhaps tenants aren’t bothered. Must be money wasted though, getting new boards all the time.

Original poster
JessieMcJessie · 15/05/2018 20:00

SilentBob why didn’t you just ask the agent to remove it?

OP posts:
Original poster
JessieMcJessie · 15/05/2018 20:02

Thing is that somebody obviously went to the bother to change these boards from “To Let” to “Re Let”. Cheeky buggers.

OP posts:
Original poster
JessieMcJessie · 15/05/2018 20:05

When I sold my flat in a nice converted Victorian building I told the agent that I was not allowing them to put up a “For Sale” board outside the building. They were well annoyed but it still sold pretty quickly.

OP posts:
Jonbb · 15/05/2018 20:08

Town and Country Planning Regulations 2007. Schedule 3, part 1, Class 3 Miscellaneous Temporary Advertisements state the boards must be taken down no later than 14 days after the property has been sold, so completed, or 14 days after the tenancy takes effect.

Hope this helps.

SuperSara · 15/05/2018 20:14

I'd ring the EA and say you live in the flats and would like the boards to be removed

Always surprises me how many people’s first thought about even the most innocuous situation is to lie.

Bizarre.

Hopefully it’s just another MN anomaly and in the real world people are more honest.

Chattymummyhere · 15/05/2018 20:17

We inherited a cupboard full of them when we moved into this house. All different agents.

ToadsforJustice · 15/05/2018 20:20

I took my board down and chucked it. Just do the same.

Maelstrop · 15/05/2018 20:33

Agent left the sign up for months. It fell off in high winds and knocked off the door of the gas meter. I was very unhappy! On my next property, I told the agent to get rid because it fell off so I put it inside (terrace). Ridiculous.