The ASA has cleared complaints against flatfair about the protection it offers estate agents and landlords.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has ruled that the complaints against payment technology company flatfair regarding the protection it gives landlords and estate agents were unsubstantiated.
The ASA said in its judgement that flatfair’s promises of “Keep your property protected” and “Get up to double the protection of a traditional tenancy deposit”had been substantiated and were therefore not misleading.
The claims made to the ASA that flatfair was “misleading” people were submitted by competitor Zero Deposit. They related to a page on flatfair’s website from July 2019 called: “How it works - Landlords.”
The claim tried to allege that flatfair’s payment platform, used by estate agents, could not back up claims to offer up to 12 weeks’ protection. The ASA has refuted the accusations and did not uphold Zero Deposit’s claim.
The ASA said in its judgement: “We noted that flatfair had agreed to purchase tenants’ debt from landlords, at 100% of the value of the debt (up to a maximum of 12 weeks’ rent), in 100% of cases where an Established Charge had gone unpaid by the tenant.”
Flatfair allows tenants to secure a property with a debit card instead of paying a large deposit.
Franz Doerr, founder and chief executive of flatfair, said: “Our business was founded through a genuine desire to make renting fairer, more transparent and more accessible and we’re delighted that this complaint has rightly been refuted.
“Deposits are a major bugbear for millions of renters, wasting significant time for thousands of agents.
“Our technology aims to make renting as easy as checking into a hotel and savvy agents are using our platform because they need a quicker process that enables tenants and landlords to communicate fairly, massively reducing conflict and distrust.”
