KEY POINTS:
Only two months after real estate firm Harcourts was rapped over the knuckles for using dodgy advertising methods, the Advertising Standards Authority has found that L J Hooker is also guilty of misleading consumers.
Rival firm Blackham Boote Real Estate complained to the authority that L J Hooker's Timaru office misled the public by advertising that it could achieve a premium house price of 10 per cent over its competitors.
The authority found that L J Hooker's sample was only five properties sold over a two-month period.
It also found that one of the properties included in the sample had a rateable value of $75,000 and sold for $134,000. Because of the small sample size, this sale had a distorting effect on the final calculation.
The authority upheld the complaint that the advertisement breached its code of ethics. It warned that "particular care" needed to be taken when surveys were being used for advertising purposes.
- NZPA
