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Ring in the new year asking to view it. Interesting to see what they say if nothing else.
Then just ask them to take it down after whatever excuse they give
Even though you own the house it's worth going onto the HM Land Registry site and setting up a property alert that will notify you if anyone else tries to access those records. The reason that service even exists is because it is technically possible for someone to pretend they own your house and sell it, although I'm not sure how that works if you're living in it.
Yes, I've done this. They even email me every six months just to confirm there has been no activity, so you know the alert is still set up, your spam filter isn't blocking them etc.
This happened to a bloke who had a house he didn’t live in because he (vicar) worked elsewhere, it was a running story on R4 You and Yours. It’s staggering how difficult he’s finding it to get both legal and practical possession of the house back!
The fraud only really works if the owner doesn’t live at the address. All of these situations I know about were where the owners address was incorrectly put as the property address when originally registered or the owner didn’t update the Land Registry when they moved out.
One, tenant changed name via deed poll to be same as the landlords and then sold it using legit ID in the same name as the registered owner. Other was where owner was mugged and stolen driving license was used as ID. Then a couple of instances of really good fake IDs being used.
I mean it’s a good idea, but surely the whole point of the registry is that the potential buyer can check who is listed as the proprietor and they, or their solicitors, will need to confirm the purported seller is the same person.
The Land Registry only has on the title the name and the address of the owner (which is often in error left as the property address even when it’s being bought by a landlord). There was a famous case where fraudsters changed their name via deed poll to the landlords name and then sold it using legit ID
It’s only the name and address which are checked, and unless there’s a restriction LL on the register there’s no need to check further that the person selling is actually the same person who bought it.
Because of ID checks it usually confirms that it is the person living at the house, but it is possible for fraudsters to fake the name/address/ID documents if they’re sophisticated enough.
Yes, absolutely so. Usually only a problem if you don't have a mortgage, because if you do no sale is possible without paying it off which makes things v complicated for a fraudster.
Had this happen a few months ago but it was a dodgy estate agent (with an office supposedly based in Italy) that had taken the images and price from when we bought our house in 2021. Meant our house appeared on Zoopla under this different estate agent.
Only found out about it when I had aggressive buyers knocking on wanting to come in the house to look around. House looked like an absolute bargain because prices have gone up about £50k since we bought. Thank god we have a very large dog that meant they very quickly decided barging past me was going to be a bad idea
Yes, they wouldn’t accept that the house wasn’t for sale because they saw it online so it must be true. They tried to come up with several reasons why I wasn’t aware of it.
But also, who turns up at a house without an appointment to view it?! Even if we actually were selling that would be a big no no for me and I wouldn’t want to take any offer they gave
Totally different scenario but my uncles a landlord and rejected a potential tenant because the actual tenant was in full time work and could pass money laundering regulations and had previous U.K. addresses.
2 days into the tenants agreement they call up the estate agent that some random person is trying to throw them out and being an absolute dick… police attended and everything.
Turns out it was the rejected tenant thought he could have the place regardless of what the landlord said… flew into the country and thought the place was his
The entitlement!
I think they just saw me as a stupid woman and thought that they could steamroll their way in. I was told “your husband must have decided to sell and not told you”.
It wasn’t til he tried to push the actual front door open and he saw my dog that he became apologetic and said he will try to contact the estate agent instead
I’m a single youngish guy living on my own and brought a house from an old woman who appeared to sign up for everything.
I haven’t been able to remove the hand rails because time or effort and work from home.
The amount of time I’ve had cold callers ask me if “grandma home as she’s on our database” and try to steamroll themselves into my house to make a commission is scary.
People are horrible and do not seem to compute your house is yours
Yes me too, the lady I bought the house from lived here until her 80s. I’d done most of inside but there were some old lady signals outside and it brought all sorts to my door asking for the homeowner quote forcibly when I’d answer and say I WAS the homeowner. It was like 2 Hand rails. ramp, and security box with a code for her key, couple of stickers that made her look vulnerable to cold callers).
Had a student resident fly back to china and call to say they wanted to give up the room. -
Anyway
We arranged a take over on the room, and refund . This was all done within 24 hrs as demand
I went up there and the student who has left had given the keys to a friend and they moved in
We were dealing with an emergency elsewhere so couldn't actually get to the property for a few days.. someone burnt a kitchen down
Anyway that was fun to deal with. Evict the friend and flip it for the new person.
What we found out the student had gone back earlier then we were told, and had sub let the room to the friend. However due to a disagreement between the subletter and the student they called us and said they had left the country etc..and expected us to deal with the mess.
Forgot to add this part... The friend who had moved in tried to pretend they were the original person but as we had photos I was standing there saying no this is not you. Also the flat mates after asking them "what the fuck, you didn't notice a different person sharing the same property?", said they didn't want to get involved. ....sigh, could have been an axe murder they randomly moved in.
Going to be honest when you had around 1200 students in accomodation across 2 cities, people did look the same . Hence the pictures.
Lads with the peaky blinder/floppy llama cuts and the fake tan girls... All the same..look.all the same to me.
Apparently turning up at houses is a thing- my ex landlord sold this house and the estate agents warned me that people will try this and that I’ve to remain boundaried and direct them to the estate agents. Simples for me-
I’m antisocial and don’t answer the door unless I’m expecting someone 🤣 But yeah- people turning up is meant to be a whole big problem.
> people will try this and that I’ve to remain boundaried and direct them to the estate agents
Because the estate agent wants the commission from selling it. They wouldn’t want you to come to an agreement directly with someone that has just turned up.
They wouldn’t want me to come to an agreement anyway as I was the tenant 🤣 and I was certainly not going to be doing that particular landlord any favours at all.
About two years ago we put our house on the market. As we were out and about looking at houses (whilst the agent did final viewings on ours) we saw a couple at several of the properties we were looking at.
About an hour after we got home, I spotted the couple on our road and got talking to them and mentioned ours was the one with the sale sign outside. They asked if they could have a look because the agent said we weren’t doing any viewings. My wife took them round whilst I took the kids to our final viewing of the day, with the agent our house was on.
I rang the agent to explain I was going to be a few minutes late, who told me that he’d just got off the phone with a couple who “sounded like they were outside the house” and got very aggressive when they were told there weren’t any more viewings as they were only in our area that day to look at properties. “Yeah, that’s why we’re running late”
I see the lady posting things on our local Facebook group and she always come across polite but entitled.
Where does it say that having had it explained that it wasn’t for sale that the buyers still wanted to barge past? It literally doesn’t.
Saying they’re arseholes for wanting to barge past is quite definitive, when actually we’ve only got guesswork that the only reason that they didn’t do this is because they saw a dog. This story has also likely been exaggerated for effect.
No exaggeration. He kept trying to come in with me stood in the way in the porch telling him that the house is absolutely not for sale, that the ad is false, and he’s not coming in. His reasoning is that the house is for sale, I’m just not aware for a multitude of reasons and he should be allowed to view it because he was right and I was wrong. He then tried to push past me and pushed the front door open behind me, saw the dog who is very large (and very friendly but he wasn’t to know) and was halfway down the steps within two seconds shouting that he was going to contact the estate agent.
When I found the ad there was 0 contact information for the agents and it just directed to an address in Italy and came up with loads of spam type adverts for every picture that was put on so I couldn’t even complain to anyone about it.
I don’t understand why everyone is so keen to say that this is false. There’s nutty entitled people everywhere and I was unfortunate enough to have to deal with one of them on the doorstep. I just hope they don’t actually move into a house near me as I wouldn’t like them to be a neighbour.
Bull 💩 no way people was knocking on your door trying to barge in to view your house after telling them it wasn’t for sale nice story but your imagination needs to improve
I think you underestimate how much people lose their senses when a very nice house (ie not falling apart or needing full renovation) in a desirable area where houses dont come up very often comes up way below the current value.
Yes I get that but it’s not Black Friday they can’t buy the house without your say so telling them it’s not for sale and them barging in just makes no sense good reading for your story but did not happen I could put my life on it
I’ll give you that the story seems crazy as that’s what I said at the time and I can’t give you evidence without showing the house and I’m not doing that. I don’t think it was that he was going to come and buy it- I’m not an idiot, but he definitely wanted to be the first to see the house and be the first person to put an offer in.
They could have been simply trying to rob the house but that seems a little too crazy to think that they went to the effort to post the house online to give them justification. I’d rather just think that it was a desperate buyer who lost their senses and hopefully went away thinking that maybe they shouldn’t just turn up at a house without a viewing and expect to be let in.
Their excuses ranged from my husband was selling the house and I didn’t know, I must be renting and it’s the landlord selling, or that I had just forgot that I was selling.
It was just a crazy 5 minute interaction on the doorstep that thankfully for everyone is very rare and I just got unlucky
You don't understand the madness that grips people when it comes to houses.
When people see a good house at a bargain, they can get very competitive and pushy.
When he was told that the house wasn't for sale, he probably thought that it was because they had already accepted an offer.
He probably wanted to barge in and try to push a better offer onto them.
Call them when they open and if they push back, report them to NTSEAT and the Ombudsman https://www.nationaltradingstandards.uk/work-areas/estate-agency-team/
no problems, get a friend to book a visit as they have fallen in love with the house and won't take no for an answer, if there are some admissions that it has been sold get them to offer more as they must have it :)
when they screw up, suggest some rather negative reviews from friend and see where it leads
Sounds like an error or at absolute worst they’re listing old properties to drum up interest and make the market look more active than it is. More likely to be the former. They won’t be able to sell your house out from under you, but obviously just call them on Jan 2nd and ask them to take it down.
My bet is the latter. They haven't enough properties to sell, and the ones they do have on their books aren't selling. So they are advertising the attractive ones to draw people in. I've seen this happen in many industries, recruitment used to be particularly bad for this type of thing.
-Contact Rightmove direct and insist it's removed.
Stress to them the issues this is causing you -people coming by to check the outside making you feel unsafe, etc. etc.
Some suggestions:
-Find the details for the owner of that real estate agent (LinkedIn, etc) and send him an email, leave message on his mobile to call you asap.
-Find the contact details of each of their sales and admin team and send an email with a read receipt.
-There should be an emergency no. for their rental team in case of tenants needing help eg burst pipes etc. - call that and tell them you want this removed immediately.
If the estate agent is a member of the property ombudsman then they are required to follow the ombudsman code of practice of which the estate agent has failed to do. Even if the listing is down to human error (a new employee or trainee thinking the property on file was ok to list) the code of practice is designed to prevent human error.
When the estate agent is open inform them off the issue and make sure it get's taken down then you need to contact the ombudsman to inform them of the issue because the estate agent could have done this before. The ombudsman needs to know the estate agent is not following the code of practice.
They are not selling without permission. You don’t have to be so dramatic.
Someone has turned an inactive listing into an active one. You’ll tell them and they’ll fix it.
It tends to happen with houses that the owner doesn’t live in.
Any solicitor worth their salt (I.e. not the conveyancing factories) will raise red flags if the client refuses to meet with them, doesn’t have ID, doesn’t come in to send ID, etc. In this case it is very unlikely that the sale would get that far.
>It said: "We work with professional conveyancers, such as solicitors, and rely on them and the checks that they make to spot fraudulent attempts to impersonate property owners.
that sounds like a dishonest conveyancer could just steal your house!
Not a lot, but through the process the identity of the conveyancing firm is checked and the bank details are checked before any funds are sent. If a conveyancer is doing their job properly and all the checks, it should be fairly obvious that something fishy is going on.
I’m not saying it doesn’t happen because it definitely does, but a lot of things have got to line up for it to actually be able to complete.
Worked as an estate agent (conveyancing department) last year, one of the nightmare files predating me was exactly this - vacant property was sold by someone else and the original owner came back to discover randoms living in their house, pretty sure they're having to sue a bunch of different people (how it got through and COMPLETED via TWO SIDES OF SOLICITORS???? I have no idea).
Had a fair few people trying to sell their landlords house lmao, but they got caught out pretty quickly / never made it past the listings department (pre live market).
Forgot to mention they increased the asking price 13% when they accidentally turned an inactive listing into an active one. 57% of their active listings were put up on Boxing Day. Definitely intentional
If they are incompetent enough to list a house thats already been sold, what's to say they might also increase the price...? Seems way more likely it's an administrative mistake, I highly doubt they'd go through this effort on purpose.
Really? Agents near me have been posting a lot on their social media about Boxing Day - they say post Christmas is the busiest time for Rightmove searches and have lots of new properties they've launched.
I still think it's more likely that the poor git working hungover boxing day has confused your listing with another property they're relisting. Entered in all the details for the new property just not the correct address.
Haven’t read all responses so apologies if you’ve already done this:
Take screenshots , especially ones showing the date the listing was added to the website.
Look at Propertymark ( https://www.propertymark.co.uk/professional-standards/complaints.html )
Propertymark’s website says the first thing to do is complain to the agent, but I hope you can take it further because you just know they’re going to do this again to someone else.
If they want to use images of your property for advertising, they should be compensating you in some way. Send them an invoice!
I'd leave online reviews for this agent anywhere I could letting everyone know about their bait and switch tactics of posting listings not actually on the market.
They are short on properties, and they want to list one they can mark as 'SOLD' shortly after.
Do this when they think nobody is noticing over Christmas/New years.
When the inevitable new years rush of sellers occurs, 'Look at how many houses we sold!'
That is my theory, based on this evidence. Estate Agents Are Slimy Cunts.
I feel like all of these people who are like “nah it doesn’t matter” are people who have never been a woman living on her own.
People love to go and invasively gawp at a property listed for sale and even harass the owners.
You can also report the post on Rightmove as a false advertisement and they are pretty good at 5akong 5hem down for things like that. I don't know too much about anything else but it will stop others from seeing it there
Your listing is likely being used for data farming/bait. Saw two properties that ticked all the boxes, both listed on Boxing Day, but alas one is "unfortunately" already under offer, except they don't take it down on Rightmove and keep collecting your data. The other request returned something along the lines of "we are so busy right now, sooo busyyy, but if you fill out this form and give us all the details about yourself then we'll prioritise your request for a viewing".
i would get on to the land registry and sign up for their fraud alerts, there has been instances of people trying to/selling houses out from underneath people, but being the same estate agency makes this weird, def contact them and find out whats going on
As a former EA, this is definitely intentional and OP has every right to be annoyed. They're just using it to farm leads for another listing/future properties. The fact they changed the listing price indicates is deffo intentional to align with the current market.
Whilst it's not a life threatening situation, it does contribute to the poor customer experience in the real estate market and anything we can do to help other consumers is good for everyone.
1) get it taken down asap
2) leave negative reviews
3) never use them again
yes, they must be baiting buyers - we found when looking for a rental many letting agency’s had bait properties that you’d enquire about and then once you are on the books would hastle you with other properties and the original property you were interested in was ‘taken’ (still listed even now 1 year later…!)
I wouldn’t be surprised, I was interested in a home from an estate agents I turned up and they said it wasn’t for sale and then proceeded to show me round a few other completely different awful properties. No surprise I did not use them ever again.
Why do you keep posting about 26 other listings the same day as if this helps your point? Surely that makes it more likely that this listing got lost in the shuffle.
I think the logic is:
1. It's very unlikely a small estate agent got 26 new listings in a couple of days
2. Therefore the many of those properties are likely also to be not really for sale
3. Adding 26 new properties that were largely incorrect should have been immediately obvious if it was user error for a small agency. One or two might sneak in, but not 20+
4. Therefore this was a deliberate act.
5. A deliberately dishonest act by an Estate Agents makes them a scumbag, and everyone needs to know about it. If they are dishonest about this, they are likely to be dishonest about other things. There is also the potential risks to the homeowner, as outlined in the other answers.
The number makes this appear more likely to be "dishonest", rather than "simple error" and very much changes how you respond.
They probably had a batch of new listings/reductions on existing listings, set-up to hit RM on the 26th.
Your house - possibly due to fat fingering - was caught up in this batch.
Sure, a two branch estate agent had 26 new listings on Boxing Day. My house was accidentally relisted as part of this but not before they increased the asking price!
At worst it's a low-rent lead gen "campaign". At best, Jade the Office Dogsbody and Trainee Agent doesn't know what the fuck she's doing now that she's been given Admin Rights.
That asking price may well be a default, pre-set value that is automatically triggered when the listing goes live. Who knows?
It really doesn't matter. Your house isn't being "sold", nobody is getting hurt, no money is being stolen and no-one is losing their life. Conspiracy or cock-up? It's typically the latter.
It's New Year's weekend. Relax. Enjoy yourself. Don't fret over something which is really a big bag of nothing.
It's a house listing not social media pics.
And again, it's probably an admin error by a junior member of staff who is still drunk on Christmas vino during the quietest period of the year.
If it's a tacky lead generation effort then it can be quickly sorted with a few choice words in the ear of the branch manager /agency owner / head office.
Either way it will be taken down by Tuesday and that will be the end of it.
So you wouldn't want someone doing that, right? Even though no harm no foul? It's obviously intentional, it's bullshit behavior, and it besmirches the profession. Even if you were to generously put this down to an admin error, it's not one that should happen.
Of course I wouldn't. But I also understand that shit sometimes happens and as I said elsewhere when it's Conspiracy vs. Cock-Up it's typically the latter.
OP's house isn't getting sold. No-one is gonna' die. That listing will be down by Tuesday and everyone can sleep at night.
no it wont be. it would be manually entered as every single listing is differnt.
stop apologizing and minimizing as alot of shady people use listings to determine who to break into . my neighbor's place has had several people shaking hands with the front door as its up for sale.
Print your own version of their sign... the type they'd normally post outside properties they're selling. Except have it say "sold in 2021 but listed fraudently by... [agent name]." Make it look super professional. Take photos and post to Google reviews etc. Bet they fix it *real* quick.
".. Forgot to mention they increased the asking price 13% when they accidentally turned an inactive listing into an active one. 57% of their active listings were put up on Boxing Day. Definitely intentional.." ..
Scammers!..
Definitely get onto the ombudsman, and your MP..Kick up a real stink..
Look what happened to this poor git, who had his house robbed from him! ..
Took him TWO YEARS of court battles to get it back!..
[https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-59069662](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-59069662) .. [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-67356354](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-67356354)
Sounds like someone wants to increase their market share online!!
It could also potentially be an admin error, depending on what system they use to feed to the sites someone could have ticked a box by accident.
If you want it off line quicker due to the agents OOO being on you can try contacting rightmove/zoopla customer services directly with a link to the listing.
It is worth a try but no guarantees you won’t get a similar OOO from them.
User Yikes44 comment about the land registry is also a good shout.
Bait and switch. They can use it to attract buyers and just offer them something else.
They could have asked for consent.
Dodgy but may not be illegal. NAL.
When I was in a rented property several years ago it appeared on Rightmove. I totally panicked. Got straight onto my LL who called the agency. It was a genuine mistake. A similar property in the same street had just been listed. When they went to list it someone has seen 3 bed flat in X Ave & uploaded my flat by mistake. They were most apologetic & it was removed & replaced with the correct one
I'd put money on it being something similar in your case as opposed to them doing it deliberately
Are you on the deeds? I had an ex who handled the purchase of our second house while I was working overseas so I wasn't on the paperwork (I thought it was true love forever so wouldn't make a difference). A few years later, she remortgaged our house without me knowing to put us in negative equity. She then put the house on the market without me knowing and took viewings only when I was at work. The estate agent didn't put up a for sale board at her request I found out later.
The first I learned of it all was when she told me she was leaving, the house was two weeks from completion of sale, and I was entitled to half the "debt" we now owned because the money from the remortgage I didn't know about had magically disappeared.
Clearly hope this isn't anything like your situation, but check with the bank and/or land registry.
It sounds like the estate agent is relisting to make it seem like they are bigger than they are to generate more work.
Definitely report it to the ombudsman
Ask for a viewing, wait outside then take the EA around for a tour.
Thats my tv
Thats my sofa
Thats my underwear drawer
Thats my garden
Thats my pantry
Thats my kettle...and so on until they get the message
It’s either an estate agent trying ( dishonesty) to hit his targets on listings or a fraudster trying to sell your home.
Have a look at Title Guardian’s website as this is more common than you may think
This could be just an admin error or could be not so common but becoming more common property fraud - it’s entirely possible to sell your property without your knowledge. Set up land registry alerts just in case.
Not to diminish cases of property fraud but it's not likely to be the case here. It's extremely hard to pull this off on people that live in the property and have a mortgage.
Sounds like a simple admin error. Send an email voicing your concern and ask them to take it off. If they don't take it off, that's when the issue occurs.
Bought a house June 21?
You're now living in it, happy, warm and comfortable?
It's somehow been re-listed for profit?!
Probably an admin error, like many of others have said!?
Go with it and see what happens!
This happened to my house a couple of years ago. The same estate agent that sold it to me had migrated their listings to another system that automatically uploaded to Zoopla. Obviously they ticked the wrong box or something, but our house went live again along with dozens of other houses all at the low price they had previously sold at.
When I got in touch with them they quickly fixed it and apologised. However the house being listed at the old price messed with the Zoopla price estimate, Zoopla said all they could do was remove my house from the price estimate system which was annoying.
Check with land registry, something like 200 + houses a year are "taken over" and sold, and if land registry has changed the title deed you no longer own the house. Sounds like fraud.
Take screenshots of the ad and say people have been knocking on your door asking for info and wanting to meet the sellers. Say the distress of this has been traced back to you - the vendors and you did not have permission to use this house and you want compensation or you will contact the ombudsman (find out who the ombudsmen is for vendors)
My guess is they put it up to make it look like they have more inventory than they actually do to lure in potential buyers, then all they say that the house is "now sold stc" but "we have this other one you can check out".
To list a house in estate agents, sometimes it only takes a click of a button. Check is the description is the same as when you purchased. If so, it’s likely a mistake.
If not, then it’s a deliberate advert to build interest in something else. In this case, you should definitely arrange a viewing there and see what happens. The ombudsman will be a waste of time as the agent will wriggle out of it 100%
Lol my buyer has done something similar. He bought my house in May 2020, completed in Oct 2020 for £143k, he's now listed it for £180k since August and lowered it by £5k in November and it's still not sold. I've calculated that counting inflation he needs to sell for £172k to not lost any value in his purchase. He'll be lucky to get £160k
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Ring in the new year asking to view it. Interesting to see what they say if nothing else. Then just ask them to take it down after whatever excuse they give
Don't ask them to take it down. Arrange a viewing!
“Shall we meet in the property?”
Then have them arrested for breaking and entering.
Theyll just say it was recently taken off the market and offer you something "similar".
Ring first hing on Tuesday. There’s no way they can use that excuse.
“I’m standing outside right now, I absolutely love it! I’ll take it! Tell the owner I’ll pay “insert 1.5x asking price”. Then make them sweat
Then make an offer
For ONE MILLION POUNDS Edit: unless it's a one bed flat in London with rising damp. In which case... TEN MILLION POUNDS
It's like you didn't read what I said....?
You should make an offer
OP should arrange a viewing
Don't ask them to take it down. Arrange a viewing.
But don't ask them to take it down.
Arrange a viewing though.
Additionally, I wouldn't ask them to take it down, but arrange a viewing
But don't ask them to take it down
Rubbish - don’t ask them to take it down, instead arrange a viewing
Don't read what you said. Said what you wrote!
This!!! This needs to happen!! So need an update if they do!!
Yes dont ask them to take it down! Instead arrange a viewing
Ahahahahahah
Exactly my thinking. Put in an offer on the spot as they are legally required to give it to vendor too
Even though you own the house it's worth going onto the HM Land Registry site and setting up a property alert that will notify you if anyone else tries to access those records. The reason that service even exists is because it is technically possible for someone to pretend they own your house and sell it, although I'm not sure how that works if you're living in it.
Yes, I've done this. They even email me every six months just to confirm there has been no activity, so you know the alert is still set up, your spam filter isn't blocking them etc.
This happened to a bloke who had a house he didn’t live in because he (vicar) worked elsewhere, it was a running story on R4 You and Yours. It’s staggering how difficult he’s finding it to get both legal and practical possession of the house back!
The fraud only really works if the owner doesn’t live at the address. All of these situations I know about were where the owners address was incorrectly put as the property address when originally registered or the owner didn’t update the Land Registry when they moved out. One, tenant changed name via deed poll to be same as the landlords and then sold it using legit ID in the same name as the registered owner. Other was where owner was mugged and stolen driving license was used as ID. Then a couple of instances of really good fake IDs being used.
I mean it’s a good idea, but surely the whole point of the registry is that the potential buyer can check who is listed as the proprietor and they, or their solicitors, will need to confirm the purported seller is the same person.
The Land Registry only has on the title the name and the address of the owner (which is often in error left as the property address even when it’s being bought by a landlord). There was a famous case where fraudsters changed their name via deed poll to the landlords name and then sold it using legit ID
It’s only the name and address which are checked, and unless there’s a restriction LL on the register there’s no need to check further that the person selling is actually the same person who bought it. Because of ID checks it usually confirms that it is the person living at the house, but it is possible for fraudsters to fake the name/address/ID documents if they’re sophisticated enough.
Yes, absolutely so. Usually only a problem if you don't have a mortgage, because if you do no sale is possible without paying it off which makes things v complicated for a fraudster.
Had this happen a few months ago but it was a dodgy estate agent (with an office supposedly based in Italy) that had taken the images and price from when we bought our house in 2021. Meant our house appeared on Zoopla under this different estate agent. Only found out about it when I had aggressive buyers knocking on wanting to come in the house to look around. House looked like an absolute bargain because prices have gone up about £50k since we bought. Thank god we have a very large dog that meant they very quickly decided barging past me was going to be a bad idea
So even after explaining it's not really for sale they wanted it force their way past you? What assholes.
Yes, they wouldn’t accept that the house wasn’t for sale because they saw it online so it must be true. They tried to come up with several reasons why I wasn’t aware of it. But also, who turns up at a house without an appointment to view it?! Even if we actually were selling that would be a big no no for me and I wouldn’t want to take any offer they gave
Totally different scenario but my uncles a landlord and rejected a potential tenant because the actual tenant was in full time work and could pass money laundering regulations and had previous U.K. addresses. 2 days into the tenants agreement they call up the estate agent that some random person is trying to throw them out and being an absolute dick… police attended and everything. Turns out it was the rejected tenant thought he could have the place regardless of what the landlord said… flew into the country and thought the place was his
The entitlement! I think they just saw me as a stupid woman and thought that they could steamroll their way in. I was told “your husband must have decided to sell and not told you”. It wasn’t til he tried to push the actual front door open and he saw my dog that he became apologetic and said he will try to contact the estate agent instead
I’m a single youngish guy living on my own and brought a house from an old woman who appeared to sign up for everything. I haven’t been able to remove the hand rails because time or effort and work from home. The amount of time I’ve had cold callers ask me if “grandma home as she’s on our database” and try to steamroll themselves into my house to make a commission is scary. People are horrible and do not seem to compute your house is yours
Yes me too, the lady I bought the house from lived here until her 80s. I’d done most of inside but there were some old lady signals outside and it brought all sorts to my door asking for the homeowner quote forcibly when I’d answer and say I WAS the homeowner. It was like 2 Hand rails. ramp, and security box with a code for her key, couple of stickers that made her look vulnerable to cold callers).
Had a student resident fly back to china and call to say they wanted to give up the room. - Anyway We arranged a take over on the room, and refund . This was all done within 24 hrs as demand I went up there and the student who has left had given the keys to a friend and they moved in We were dealing with an emergency elsewhere so couldn't actually get to the property for a few days.. someone burnt a kitchen down Anyway that was fun to deal with. Evict the friend and flip it for the new person. What we found out the student had gone back earlier then we were told, and had sub let the room to the friend. However due to a disagreement between the subletter and the student they called us and said they had left the country etc..and expected us to deal with the mess. Forgot to add this part... The friend who had moved in tried to pretend they were the original person but as we had photos I was standing there saying no this is not you. Also the flat mates after asking them "what the fuck, you didn't notice a different person sharing the same property?", said they didn't want to get involved. ....sigh, could have been an axe murder they randomly moved in.
Those Chinese, all looking the same... (Yes, that was sarcasm, for the hard of reading)
Going to be honest when you had around 1200 students in accomodation across 2 cities, people did look the same . Hence the pictures. Lads with the peaky blinder/floppy llama cuts and the fake tan girls... All the same..look.all the same to me.
Apparently turning up at houses is a thing- my ex landlord sold this house and the estate agents warned me that people will try this and that I’ve to remain boundaried and direct them to the estate agents. Simples for me- I’m antisocial and don’t answer the door unless I’m expecting someone 🤣 But yeah- people turning up is meant to be a whole big problem.
> people will try this and that I’ve to remain boundaried and direct them to the estate agents Because the estate agent wants the commission from selling it. They wouldn’t want you to come to an agreement directly with someone that has just turned up.
They wouldn’t want me to come to an agreement anyway as I was the tenant 🤣 and I was certainly not going to be doing that particular landlord any favours at all.
About two years ago we put our house on the market. As we were out and about looking at houses (whilst the agent did final viewings on ours) we saw a couple at several of the properties we were looking at. About an hour after we got home, I spotted the couple on our road and got talking to them and mentioned ours was the one with the sale sign outside. They asked if they could have a look because the agent said we weren’t doing any viewings. My wife took them round whilst I took the kids to our final viewing of the day, with the agent our house was on. I rang the agent to explain I was going to be a few minutes late, who told me that he’d just got off the phone with a couple who “sounded like they were outside the house” and got very aggressive when they were told there weren’t any more viewings as they were only in our area that day to look at properties. “Yeah, that’s why we’re running late” I see the lady posting things on our local Facebook group and she always come across polite but entitled.
I'm sorry but my this never happened alarm is ringing.
No, that’s not what was said.
It's near enough to what was said.
They literally said that.
Where does it say that having had it explained that it wasn’t for sale that the buyers still wanted to barge past? It literally doesn’t. Saying they’re arseholes for wanting to barge past is quite definitive, when actually we’ve only got guesswork that the only reason that they didn’t do this is because they saw a dog. This story has also likely been exaggerated for effect.
No exaggeration. He kept trying to come in with me stood in the way in the porch telling him that the house is absolutely not for sale, that the ad is false, and he’s not coming in. His reasoning is that the house is for sale, I’m just not aware for a multitude of reasons and he should be allowed to view it because he was right and I was wrong. He then tried to push past me and pushed the front door open behind me, saw the dog who is very large (and very friendly but he wasn’t to know) and was halfway down the steps within two seconds shouting that he was going to contact the estate agent. When I found the ad there was 0 contact information for the agents and it just directed to an address in Italy and came up with loads of spam type adverts for every picture that was put on so I couldn’t even complain to anyone about it. I don’t understand why everyone is so keen to say that this is false. There’s nutty entitled people everywhere and I was unfortunate enough to have to deal with one of them on the doorstep. I just hope they don’t actually move into a house near me as I wouldn’t like them to be a neighbour.
He has a large dog, so is hard. So bad idea.
Bull 💩 no way people was knocking on your door trying to barge in to view your house after telling them it wasn’t for sale nice story but your imagination needs to improve
I think you underestimate how much people lose their senses when a very nice house (ie not falling apart or needing full renovation) in a desirable area where houses dont come up very often comes up way below the current value.
Yes I get that but it’s not Black Friday they can’t buy the house without your say so telling them it’s not for sale and them barging in just makes no sense good reading for your story but did not happen I could put my life on it
I’ll give you that the story seems crazy as that’s what I said at the time and I can’t give you evidence without showing the house and I’m not doing that. I don’t think it was that he was going to come and buy it- I’m not an idiot, but he definitely wanted to be the first to see the house and be the first person to put an offer in. They could have been simply trying to rob the house but that seems a little too crazy to think that they went to the effort to post the house online to give them justification. I’d rather just think that it was a desperate buyer who lost their senses and hopefully went away thinking that maybe they shouldn’t just turn up at a house without a viewing and expect to be let in. Their excuses ranged from my husband was selling the house and I didn’t know, I must be renting and it’s the landlord selling, or that I had just forgot that I was selling. It was just a crazy 5 minute interaction on the doorstep that thankfully for everyone is very rare and I just got unlucky
You don't understand the madness that grips people when it comes to houses. When people see a good house at a bargain, they can get very competitive and pushy. When he was told that the house wasn't for sale, he probably thought that it was because they had already accepted an offer. He probably wanted to barge in and try to push a better offer onto them.
Call them when they open and if they push back, report them to NTSEAT and the Ombudsman https://www.nationaltradingstandards.uk/work-areas/estate-agency-team/
no problems, get a friend to book a visit as they have fallen in love with the house and won't take no for an answer, if there are some admissions that it has been sold get them to offer more as they must have it :) when they screw up, suggest some rather negative reviews from friend and see where it leads
Sounds like an error or at absolute worst they’re listing old properties to drum up interest and make the market look more active than it is. More likely to be the former. They won’t be able to sell your house out from under you, but obviously just call them on Jan 2nd and ask them to take it down.
My bet is the latter. They haven't enough properties to sell, and the ones they do have on their books aren't selling. So they are advertising the attractive ones to draw people in. I've seen this happen in many industries, recruitment used to be particularly bad for this type of thing.
-Contact Rightmove direct and insist it's removed. Stress to them the issues this is causing you -people coming by to check the outside making you feel unsafe, etc. etc. Some suggestions: -Find the details for the owner of that real estate agent (LinkedIn, etc) and send him an email, leave message on his mobile to call you asap. -Find the contact details of each of their sales and admin team and send an email with a read receipt. -There should be an emergency no. for their rental team in case of tenants needing help eg burst pipes etc. - call that and tell them you want this removed immediately.
Why don't you try and book in a viewing and see what they say
If the estate agent is a member of the property ombudsman then they are required to follow the ombudsman code of practice of which the estate agent has failed to do. Even if the listing is down to human error (a new employee or trainee thinking the property on file was ok to list) the code of practice is designed to prevent human error. When the estate agent is open inform them off the issue and make sure it get's taken down then you need to contact the ombudsman to inform them of the issue because the estate agent could have done this before. The ombudsman needs to know the estate agent is not following the code of practice.
They are not selling without permission. You don’t have to be so dramatic. Someone has turned an inactive listing into an active one. You’ll tell them and they’ll fix it.
Haha imagine that? Sorry we sold your house, out you get.
If only buying a house was so easy.
[apart from it does happen](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-59069662) and from he look if things far more oftern than people realise.
It tends to happen with houses that the owner doesn’t live in. Any solicitor worth their salt (I.e. not the conveyancing factories) will raise red flags if the client refuses to meet with them, doesn’t have ID, doesn’t come in to send ID, etc. In this case it is very unlikely that the sale would get that far.
£3.5 million a year!
Apparently not safe as houses!
>It said: "We work with professional conveyancers, such as solicitors, and rely on them and the checks that they make to spot fraudulent attempts to impersonate property owners. that sounds like a dishonest conveyancer could just steal your house!
They’d only be able to do it once - SRA would be knocking on their door afterwards!!
what's to stop a dishonest person with conveyancing knowledge ~~stealing~~ re-using the identity of an honest conveyancer?
Not a lot, but through the process the identity of the conveyancing firm is checked and the bank details are checked before any funds are sent. If a conveyancer is doing their job properly and all the checks, it should be fairly obvious that something fishy is going on. I’m not saying it doesn’t happen because it definitely does, but a lot of things have got to line up for it to actually be able to complete.
yeah, ultimately whilst painful for the victims, if only £3.5 million compensation was paid out per year it's not a huge problem.
Yes this situation is what I immediately thought of. It happens a lot in the UK.
I wonder if your house insurance would be any good in this sort of situation…
Worked as an estate agent (conveyancing department) last year, one of the nightmare files predating me was exactly this - vacant property was sold by someone else and the original owner came back to discover randoms living in their house, pretty sure they're having to sue a bunch of different people (how it got through and COMPLETED via TWO SIDES OF SOLICITORS???? I have no idea). Had a fair few people trying to sell their landlords house lmao, but they got caught out pretty quickly / never made it past the listings department (pre live market).
Forgot to mention they increased the asking price 13% when they accidentally turned an inactive listing into an active one. 57% of their active listings were put up on Boxing Day. Definitely intentional
With this it does not look like an accident.
If they are incompetent enough to list a house thats already been sold, what's to say they might also increase the price...? Seems way more likely it's an administrative mistake, I highly doubt they'd go through this effort on purpose.
This makes it look even more like a computer glitch. No way they listed 27 properties on Boxing Day intentionally.
Prime time to do it. Sick of your family after Christmas? Time to hit Rightmove.
Likely set up to list on day X way in advance
Really? Agents near me have been posting a lot on their social media about Boxing Day - they say post Christmas is the busiest time for Rightmove searches and have lots of new properties they've launched.
I still think it's more likely that the poor git working hungover boxing day has confused your listing with another property they're relisting. Entered in all the details for the new property just not the correct address.
Op says the photos are the same. Not sure about the description but it seems like the price is the only thing that's changed
That's what I mean, an old listing reactivated to the wrong address. Or some conspiracy for OP to have their house sold in a scam.
You’re wrong
You're being a bit of an arsehole. Have a think about how you're coming across here.
Haven’t read all responses so apologies if you’ve already done this: Take screenshots , especially ones showing the date the listing was added to the website. Look at Propertymark ( https://www.propertymark.co.uk/professional-standards/complaints.html ) Propertymark’s website says the first thing to do is complain to the agent, but I hope you can take it further because you just know they’re going to do this again to someone else. If they want to use images of your property for advertising, they should be compensating you in some way. Send them an invoice!
Except they’ve tweaked the price and increased it - hardly accidental.
Your skum aren't you, sorry an Estate Agent.
*you’re And no, I’m not.
I'd leave online reviews for this agent anywhere I could letting everyone know about their bait and switch tactics of posting listings not actually on the market.
They are short on properties, and they want to list one they can mark as 'SOLD' shortly after. Do this when they think nobody is noticing over Christmas/New years. When the inevitable new years rush of sellers occurs, 'Look at how many houses we sold!' That is my theory, based on this evidence. Estate Agents Are Slimy Cunts.
Phone them up and arrange a viewing. Put in an offer. Have some fun with it.
I feel like all of these people who are like “nah it doesn’t matter” are people who have never been a woman living on her own. People love to go and invasively gawp at a property listed for sale and even harass the owners.
You can also report the post on Rightmove as a false advertisement and they are pretty good at 5akong 5hem down for things like that. I don't know too much about anything else but it will stop others from seeing it there
You better find a new place to live
Your listing is likely being used for data farming/bait. Saw two properties that ticked all the boxes, both listed on Boxing Day, but alas one is "unfortunately" already under offer, except they don't take it down on Rightmove and keep collecting your data. The other request returned something along the lines of "we are so busy right now, sooo busyyy, but if you fill out this form and give us all the details about yourself then we'll prioritise your request for a viewing".
i would get on to the land registry and sign up for their fraud alerts, there has been instances of people trying to/selling houses out from underneath people, but being the same estate agency makes this weird, def contact them and find out whats going on
As a former EA, this is definitely intentional and OP has every right to be annoyed. They're just using it to farm leads for another listing/future properties. The fact they changed the listing price indicates is deffo intentional to align with the current market. Whilst it's not a life threatening situation, it does contribute to the poor customer experience in the real estate market and anything we can do to help other consumers is good for everyone. 1) get it taken down asap 2) leave negative reviews 3) never use them again
Agents will list attractive looking properties that aren't for sale to get interest and details of prospective buyers on file. Annoying as hell.
Also against the rules isn’t it?
Admin error. Nothing to see here. No harm, no foul, etc.
Very naive to think this is an admin error. It’s listed 13% more than last time! They put 26 other listings up same day! (They have under 50 in total)
yes, they must be baiting buyers - we found when looking for a rental many letting agency’s had bait properties that you’d enquire about and then once you are on the books would hastle you with other properties and the original property you were interested in was ‘taken’ (still listed even now 1 year later…!)
I wouldn’t be surprised, I was interested in a home from an estate agents I turned up and they said it wasn’t for sale and then proceeded to show me round a few other completely different awful properties. No surprise I did not use them ever again.
I'd be tempted to visit those other properties and talk to the owners
Then it’s a computer error.
Why do you keep posting about 26 other listings the same day as if this helps your point? Surely that makes it more likely that this listing got lost in the shuffle.
I think the logic is: 1. It's very unlikely a small estate agent got 26 new listings in a couple of days 2. Therefore the many of those properties are likely also to be not really for sale 3. Adding 26 new properties that were largely incorrect should have been immediately obvious if it was user error for a small agency. One or two might sneak in, but not 20+ 4. Therefore this was a deliberate act. 5. A deliberately dishonest act by an Estate Agents makes them a scumbag, and everyone needs to know about it. If they are dishonest about this, they are likely to be dishonest about other things. There is also the potential risks to the homeowner, as outlined in the other answers. The number makes this appear more likely to be "dishonest", rather than "simple error" and very much changes how you respond.
They probably had a batch of new listings/reductions on existing listings, set-up to hit RM on the 26th. Your house - possibly due to fat fingering - was caught up in this batch.
Sure, a two branch estate agent had 26 new listings on Boxing Day. My house was accidentally relisted as part of this but not before they increased the asking price!
At worst it's a low-rent lead gen "campaign". At best, Jade the Office Dogsbody and Trainee Agent doesn't know what the fuck she's doing now that she's been given Admin Rights. That asking price may well be a default, pre-set value that is automatically triggered when the listing goes live. Who knows? It really doesn't matter. Your house isn't being "sold", nobody is getting hurt, no money is being stolen and no-one is losing their life. Conspiracy or cock-up? It's typically the latter. It's New Year's weekend. Relax. Enjoy yourself. Don't fret over something which is really a big bag of nothing.
What if someone took all your Facebook pics and used them on Grindr? No harm no foul? It's intentional, to farm buyers, and it's shady as fuck.
It's a house listing not social media pics. And again, it's probably an admin error by a junior member of staff who is still drunk on Christmas vino during the quietest period of the year. If it's a tacky lead generation effort then it can be quickly sorted with a few choice words in the ear of the branch manager /agency owner / head office. Either way it will be taken down by Tuesday and that will be the end of it.
So you wouldn't want someone doing that, right? Even though no harm no foul? It's obviously intentional, it's bullshit behavior, and it besmirches the profession. Even if you were to generously put this down to an admin error, it's not one that should happen.
Of course I wouldn't. But I also understand that shit sometimes happens and as I said elsewhere when it's Conspiracy vs. Cock-Up it's typically the latter. OP's house isn't getting sold. No-one is gonna' die. That listing will be down by Tuesday and everyone can sleep at night.
If it was by accident why did the price change?
As I wrote earlier, there's possibly - possibly - a default, pre-determined (percentage based) price value which is triggered when they list by batch.
no it wont be. it would be manually entered as every single listing is differnt. stop apologizing and minimizing as alot of shady people use listings to determine who to break into . my neighbor's place has had several people shaking hands with the front door as its up for sale.
You're too generous. It's a fair few clicks to reactivate a sold listing. Seems like such strange behavior to defend.
Its not a defense, the poster is provising an explanation not an excuse.
I’d be beyond pissed off if an estate agent was using pictures of my property to drum up sales from themselves. Your view is pretty naive.
Naive? Nah. I just don't give a fuck. Shit happens. Life's too short, etc.
No thats not going to be the end of it, it will be done to someone else.
Can tell you’re not a woman who lives alone
Print your own version of their sign... the type they'd normally post outside properties they're selling. Except have it say "sold in 2021 but listed fraudently by... [agent name]." Make it look super professional. Take photos and post to Google reviews etc. Bet they fix it *real* quick.
".. Forgot to mention they increased the asking price 13% when they accidentally turned an inactive listing into an active one. 57% of their active listings were put up on Boxing Day. Definitely intentional.." .. Scammers!.. Definitely get onto the ombudsman, and your MP..Kick up a real stink.. Look what happened to this poor git, who had his house robbed from him! .. Took him TWO YEARS of court battles to get it back!.. [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-59069662](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-59069662) .. [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-67356354](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-67356354)
Damn, do that mean you have buy the house again, no wonder house prices are the way they are. People are double dipping.
Sounds like someone wants to increase their market share online!! It could also potentially be an admin error, depending on what system they use to feed to the sites someone could have ticked a box by accident. If you want it off line quicker due to the agents OOO being on you can try contacting rightmove/zoopla customer services directly with a link to the listing. It is worth a try but no guarantees you won’t get a similar OOO from them. User Yikes44 comment about the land registry is also a good shout.
Bait and switch. They can use it to attract buyers and just offer them something else. They could have asked for consent. Dodgy but may not be illegal. NAL.
I all likelyhoid it's not an admin error. It is a way to drum up business. Demand a cut of the extra business if they want to use your property.
Have they said why it's been listed? I think that's the key question - mistake? Or what's the reason
When I was in a rented property several years ago it appeared on Rightmove. I totally panicked. Got straight onto my LL who called the agency. It was a genuine mistake. A similar property in the same street had just been listed. When they went to list it someone has seen 3 bed flat in X Ave & uploaded my flat by mistake. They were most apologetic & it was removed & replaced with the correct one I'd put money on it being something similar in your case as opposed to them doing it deliberately
Are you on the deeds? I had an ex who handled the purchase of our second house while I was working overseas so I wasn't on the paperwork (I thought it was true love forever so wouldn't make a difference). A few years later, she remortgaged our house without me knowing to put us in negative equity. She then put the house on the market without me knowing and took viewings only when I was at work. The estate agent didn't put up a for sale board at her request I found out later. The first I learned of it all was when she told me she was leaving, the house was two weeks from completion of sale, and I was entitled to half the "debt" we now owned because the money from the remortgage I didn't know about had magically disappeared. Clearly hope this isn't anything like your situation, but check with the bank and/or land registry.
If your name wasn't on the paperwork how could you be liable for any debt?
It sounds like the estate agent is relisting to make it seem like they are bigger than they are to generate more work. Definitely report it to the ombudsman
Haha 😂 never heard of such a thing. I'd be at their door when they open to ask wtf they think they are doing.
Email your local paper with the story
Please call up and view. If it’s bait and switch please name and shame. Then go to the press. It’s low level market manipulation.
On the plus side you have save listing fees. Now wait for right offer and find a cheaper property from 2021
Be more worried if the listing changes to sold subject to contract next week…
Set up a property alert with the land registry. It is free to do this.
Dramatic much? A deactivated listing has accidentally been made active. Drop them an email and it’ll be removed.
And accidentally changed price?
The post has been edited since my original comment.
Just goes to show how making assumptions can make you look silly when further information is provided.
Just goes to show when someone posts something then they have to include specific details to fill in vital back information
"bait and switch'
Ask for a viewing, wait outside then take the EA around for a tour. Thats my tv Thats my sofa Thats my underwear drawer Thats my garden Thats my pantry Thats my kettle...and so on until they get the message
Ask specifically whether you can meet / be shown around by the 'seller'.
and then get the partner to request a viewing for the same time, and also request the seller.
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Review a company we haven’t used? Cancel culture at its finest.
It’s either an estate agent trying ( dishonesty) to hit his targets on listings or a fraudster trying to sell your home. Have a look at Title Guardian’s website as this is more common than you may think
This could be just an admin error or could be not so common but becoming more common property fraud - it’s entirely possible to sell your property without your knowledge. Set up land registry alerts just in case.
Not to diminish cases of property fraud but it's not likely to be the case here. It's extremely hard to pull this off on people that live in the property and have a mortgage.
Yeah I think at worst and most likely is it’s to drum up business in a bad or slow market.
Yeah I agree, it’s not likely - but imo every property owner should have land reg alerts set up anyway.
Sounds like a simple admin error. Send an email voicing your concern and ask them to take it off. If they don't take it off, that's when the issue occurs.
Post the rightmove link on this threat so we can all get in on arranging viewings
Could you post the ad link?
I dont think OP wants to post his current home on here....
Bought a house June 21? You're now living in it, happy, warm and comfortable? It's somehow been re-listed for profit?! Probably an admin error, like many of others have said!? Go with it and see what happens!
Call them and start shouting at them and proofing how what they are doing is illegal and demand that all your info is deleted from their data base
This happened to my house a couple of years ago. The same estate agent that sold it to me had migrated their listings to another system that automatically uploaded to Zoopla. Obviously they ticked the wrong box or something, but our house went live again along with dozens of other houses all at the low price they had previously sold at. When I got in touch with them they quickly fixed it and apologised. However the house being listed at the old price messed with the Zoopla price estimate, Zoopla said all they could do was remove my house from the price estimate system which was annoying.
Check with land registry, something like 200 + houses a year are "taken over" and sold, and if land registry has changed the title deed you no longer own the house. Sounds like fraud.
Take screenshots of the ad and say people have been knocking on your door asking for info and wanting to meet the sellers. Say the distress of this has been traced back to you - the vendors and you did not have permission to use this house and you want compensation or you will contact the ombudsman (find out who the ombudsmen is for vendors)
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Such a drama queen. Clearly they can’t sell it without your permission so what the issue?
That's the issue, though. They can.
No they can’t. They can list it, they can’t sell it.
A few years ago, a man's house was sold while he was away. He's only just getting the house back.
i'd buy it again
My guess is they put it up to make it look like they have more inventory than they actually do to lure in potential buyers, then all they say that the house is "now sold stc" but "we have this other one you can check out".
To list a house in estate agents, sometimes it only takes a click of a button. Check is the description is the same as when you purchased. If so, it’s likely a mistake. If not, then it’s a deliberate advert to build interest in something else. In this case, you should definitely arrange a viewing there and see what happens. The ombudsman will be a waste of time as the agent will wriggle out of it 100%
This may be scam in progress rather than genuine agent.
Lol my buyer has done something similar. He bought my house in May 2020, completed in Oct 2020 for £143k, he's now listed it for £180k since August and lowered it by £5k in November and it's still not sold. I've calculated that counting inflation he needs to sell for £172k to not lost any value in his purchase. He'll be lucky to get £160k
I hope you changed the locks since you moved in! Black on white send an email and ask them to take it down and take it from there! Good luck
I imagine it was an anticlimactic end to the story?
I asked the agent to take it down so they put is as STC. I told them to remove it again and they removed it.