What a misleading property description costs in 2026

What are the actual penalties for a misleading description?

The old picture was a prosecution or nothing. The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 were criminal in structure and needed a court, which is why enforcement against agents was rare and slow. The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 kept the criminal route and added an administrative one, so a single set of particulars can now produce a civil penalty, a prosecution and a private claim from the same facts.

The conduct is defined in the same 3 sections that define a compliant listing. Section 226 covers misleading actions, meaning false information or a presentation likely to deceive on a matter such as the main characteristics or the price, where it causes a transactional decision the consumer would not otherwise have taken. Section 227 covers misleading omissions. Section 230 covers omitting material information from an invitation to purchase, which a listing is.

Scale matters less than repetition. A single wrong room count on a single listing is a mistake. The same wrong definition applied across a portfolio is a practice, and a practice is what an enforcer opens a case about.

How does the CMA fine an agency without going to court?

Part 3 Chapter 4 of the Act gives the CMA direct enforcement. Section 180 lets it investigate a suspected infringement. Section 181 produces a provisional infringement notice, and section 182 a final one, which is where the money sits: a fixed amount not exceeding 300,000 pounds or, if higher, 10 per cent of the total value of the respondent's turnover. There is no requirement to prove loss to a particular consumer first.

The follow on powers matter as much as the headline. If you give an undertaking and breach it, section 190 allows a penalty of up to 150,000 pounds or 5 per cent of turnover, plus a daily rate of up to 15,000 pounds or 5 per cent of daily turnover. Breaching a direction under section 193 carries the same figures. Giving the CMA false or misleading information during an investigation carries up to 30,000 pounds or 1 per cent of turnover under section 198. Appeals run to a 60 day window under section 202.

Route	Who	Maximum	Section
Final infringement notice	Competition and Markets Authority	300,000 pounds or 10 per cent of global turnover, whichever is higher	182
Breach of an undertaking	Competition and Markets Authority	150,000 pounds or 5 per cent of turnover, plus a daily rate	190
Breach of a direction	Competition and Markets Authority	150,000 pounds or 5 per cent of turnover, plus a daily rate	193
False information to an investigation	Competition and Markets Authority	30,000 pounds or 1 per cent of turnover	198
Prosecution on indictment	Local trading standards	2 years imprisonment, a fine, or both	240
Consumer redress	The buyer or tenant	Unwind, discount, and damages for financial loss or distress	232
Rental advert breaches	Local housing authority	7,000 pounds per breach	Renters' Rights Act 2025, ss 40 and 57

Local weights and measures authorities keep their own enforcement powers alongside all of this, and they act on a single complaint from a single consumer. Most agency cases still start there rather than with the CMA.

Can an individual be prosecuted, or only the company?

Both. Section 237 creates the offences: a breach involving false or misleading information, a breach involving omitted material information, a breach involving harassment, coercion or undue influence, a breach of professional diligence where the trader knows or is reckless as to whether the practice contravenes the standard, an omission from an invitation to purchase, and a breach involving a practice in Schedule 20.

Section 239 extends criminal liability to officers of a body corporate where the offence was committed with their consent or connivance, or was attributable to their neglect. A director who approved the template, or who was told about the problem and did nothing, is inside that wording. Section 241 sets the time limit for prosecution, which is why a complaint about particulars written 2 years ago can still land.

Section 238 provides the defence, and it is a documentary one. It requires the defendant to prove that the offence was due to the act or default of another person, to reliance on information given by another, or to a mistake or accident outside their control, and that they took all reasonable precautions and exercised all due diligence. There is also an innocent publication defence for a publisher who received the advertisement in the ordinary course of business and had no reason to suspect an offence. That defence protects the portal. It does not protect the agent who supplied the copy.

What can a buyer or tenant claim from you directly?

Section 232 gives consumers rights of redress in their own name, with section 233 setting out the mechanics. 3 remedies are available: a right to unwind the relevant contract or a consumer payment, a right to a discount on the product supplied, and a right to damages covering financial loss, distress, physical inconvenience or discomfort.

Damages for distress are the part agents underestimate. A claim does not require a completed purchase to have gone wrong in monetary terms. Aborted costs, a wasted survey, time off work and the upset of discovering the flood history after exchange all fit inside that wording, and the sums are small enough to sit in the small claims track where legal costs do not follow the event.

Redress schemes run in parallel and are usually the first thing you hear about. Membership of an approved scheme is compulsory for estate agency work under the Estate Agents (Redress Scheme) Order 2008 and for lettings agency work under the 2014 Order. An ombudsman award is not a fine, but it is a public record and it arrives far faster than any enforcement action.

Which claims are unfair whatever the context?

Schedule 20 lists practices that are banned in all circumstances, with no need to show that any consumer was actually affected. 4 of them describe things that happen in property marketing every week.

Paragraph 5 catches bait advertising: offering a property at a stated price without a reasonable basis for believing it can be supplied at that price for a reasonable period. Paragraph 7 catches falsely stating that a product will only be available for a very limited time in order to force an immediate decision, which is the standard closing line on a launch weekend. Paragraph 4 catches falsely claiming approval or endorsement by a public or private body. Paragraph 13 catches misleading reviews, including publishing fake testimonials and concealing that a review was incentivised, which brought agency review farming inside the banned list from 6 April 2025.

2 habits sit uncomfortably close to those paragraphs. Advertising a guide price the vendor has already refused, and offering a client a reward for a review without disclosing it. Neither needs a complainant to become an infringement. The wording rules that keep you clear of section 226 in the first place are in property description rules for UK estate agents, and the fields whose absence triggers section 227 are in material information on UK property listings in 2026.

Frequently asked questions

Has the CMA actually fined an estate agency yet?

The direct enforcement powers only came into force on 6 April 2025, and the CMA's own guidance CMA207 is written for all consumer facing businesses rather than for property. The realistic exposure for a single branch remains a trading standards complaint, a portal suppression and an ombudsman award, in that order. The size of the CMA ceiling matters because it sets the tone of every undertaking you might be asked to give.

Does puffery still get a free pass?

Yes. Obvious exaggeration that no average consumer would take literally is not a misleading action, and CAP Code rule 3.2 says the same for advertising. The exposure sits in checkable statements: room counts, tenure, chain position, parking, planning, floor area, running costs and condition.

Is the agent liable for what the vendor told them?

Not automatically. Section 238 allows a defence based on reliance on information given by another person, provided you also took all reasonable precautions and exercised all due diligence. A vendor's written answer plus a check against a document is a defence. A vendor's verbal answer written straight onto the particulars is not.

What about a photograph rather than words?

The same sections apply, because a misleading action can be created by any presentation likely to deceive. Edited images have their own labelling duties on top, which are set out in AI edited property photos and the law in the UK.

Sources

• Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, Part 4, legislation.gov.uk
• Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, Part 3 Chapter 4, legislation.gov.uk
• Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, section 233, legislation.gov.uk
• Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, Schedule 20, legislation.gov.uk
• Unfair commercial practices, CMA207, published 4 April 2025 and updated 18 November 2025, Competition and Markets Authority
• Renters' Rights Act 2025, section 57, legislation.gov.uk
• Renters' Rights Act 2025, Part 1 Chapter 3, legislation.gov.uk
• Estate Agents Act 1979, legislation.gov.uk
• CAP Code section 3, misleading advertising, Committee of Advertising Practice
• NTSELAT material information guidance withdrawn but duty remains, 12 May 2025, Today's Conveyancer

Last verified: 2026-09-02