Property description rules for UK estate agents

What law governs a property description now?

The Property Misdescriptions Act 1991 is long gone. Its replacement, the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008, was itself superseded on 6 April 2025 by the unfair commercial practices provisions of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024. Two limbs of that Act matter to anyone writing particulars.

A misleading action is a statement that is false, or that is technically true but presented in a way that deceives the average consumer, on a point that causes them to take a decision they would not otherwise have taken. Calling a box room a bedroom, describing a share of freehold as freehold, or implying a chain free sale that is not chain free all sit here. A misleading omission is leaving out information the consumer needs. Omitting material information from an invitation to purchase is now unfair in its own right, which is why the description and the compliance fields have to be checked together rather than by different people on different days. The full picture on the fields side is in material information on UK property listings in 2026.

The practical consequence is that the description is evidence. Whatever your negotiator wrote at 6pm on a Friday is the thing a complainant will screenshot, and the CMA no longer needs a court to act on it.

Which advertising terms are you allowed to use?

National Trading Standards published revised guidance on terms used in property advertising in August 2023, covering both sales and lettings, and Rightmove's technical guidelines still require advertising to be conducted in line with it. The point of the guidance is that common status words have working definitions and are not interchangeable marketing garnish.

Rightmove's own rules put dates around several of them. A sales property must be flagged as sold subject to contract from the point an offer is accepted until completion. A rental must be flagged let agreed from the point of acceptance or when the holding deposit is taken until it is tenanted. Text inside the description that claims a status has to match the status the property is supplied with, so a description that says "under offer" on a listing still flagged available is a data quality breach as well as a potentially misleading statement.

Two more Rightmove rules are worth pinning to the wall. A listing may only be shown as reduced if the reduction is at least 2 per cent of the price, which is a Rightmove commercial threshold rather than a legal one, and smaller reductions should be described in the free text with a was and now figure because any reduction is a reduction and must be advertised as such. Declaring a fall through requires the exact wording "I declare this property as a fall through and request that it be returned to market", and Rightmove states that an inaccurate declaration is likely to be a misleading action contrary to the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act, with a penalty of a fine or up to two years imprisonment.

In the description	Position	Source of the rule
Phone number, email address or your web address	Not allowed	Rightmove technical guidelines, Zoopla member terms
Vendor fees or your commission	Not allowed, apart from permitted payments and buyer fees	Rightmove technical guidelines
Names of an individual, company or brand	Not allowed	Rightmove technical guidelines
"Sold by us" or "another sold by"	Not allowed	Rightmove technical guidelines
Status wording that contradicts the listing status	Not allowed	Rightmove technical guidelines
Held in trust with probate not granted	Required in the description	Rightmove technical guidelines, Primary Authority advice
Full monthly rent where a rent free period is offered	Required, with the offer explained in the text	Rightmove technical guidelines, Primary Authority advice

What counts as a bathroom, and other definitions that bite

Room counts are the single most common source of a complaint that sticks, because the number is checkable and the argument is short. Rightmove records Primary Authority advice that "bathroom" covers bathrooms, shower rooms and ensuites, and excludes separate toilets, wash hand basins and cloakrooms with toilets. Get that wrong across a portfolio and every listing carries the same defect.

The same discipline applies to the address. Rightmove requires a full property address including the first line, with an exception for new homes, and treats the display address field as a locality field rather than a free text slot for marketing copy. Where a new build postcode has not been designated yet, the development or a nearby postcode may be used. Advertising a property in the wrong location to catch a different search is a listing integrity breach.

What changes for a lettings description?

Lettings descriptions carry rules that sales descriptions do not. Permitted payments for rental properties in England and Wales must be displayed in the Tenancy Info field, and rent has to take the form of money. Rightmove asks for client money protection and redress scheme details in the same field, and client money protection certificates may be uploaded under the brochure field.

Two rules exist because of past discrimination. Generic bans on renting to families or people with children are not permitted in listings. On housing benefit, Rightmove follows CMA guidance: mention a restriction only where a landlord has a contractual term, such as a mortgage condition, that restricts letting to someone on benefits, and say what the restriction is. Claiming a restriction that does not exist is misleading, and any mention of not accepting housing benefit without a stated reason is removed automatically.

Scotland changes the sales picture rather than the lettings one. A home marketed for sale in Scotland needs a Home Report, and the single survey inside it gives buyers a valuation and a condition assessment before they read a word of your copy. Write to that reality. A description that oversells a property whose survey says otherwise loses credibility on the first viewing, and the survey arrives within nine days of a request.

How do you write one that still sells?

Specificity is the only real technique. A description built from what is actually in front of you, in the order a buyer walks the property, outperforms adjectives. Lead with the thing that is genuinely unusual about the property, name materials and orientations rather than reaching for superlatives, and give the reader the numbers they are going to ask for anyway.

Accessibility is now part of the brief. Rightmove's January 2026 guidelines ask members to align listings with the European Accessibility Act and similar law: give property photos clear alternative text, keep language plain, break text into short paragraphs or bullets, avoid all capitals, and avoid uploading scanned brochures or images of text. That is a readability standard as much as a compliance one, and it happens to describe a good description.

Structure the copy so a scanning reader gets the property in the first forty words and a committed reader gets the detail underneath. Photographs carry the emotional work, so let them, and keep the words doing the job the photographs cannot do. The portal rules on the images themselves are set out in Rightmove and Zoopla photo rules for UK agents.

Frequently asked questions

Can we still say "must be seen" or "stunning" in a description?

Puffery that no reasonable consumer would treat as a factual claim is not the problem. A specific claim that turns out to be wrong is. The risk sits in measurable statements: room counts, tenure, chain position, parking, planning, condition and running costs.

Are we allowed to put our phone number in the description on Rightmove?

No. Rightmove requires contact details, including web addresses, phone numbers and email addresses, to stay out of the property description, and prohibits language encouraging users to enquire outside the platform's own channels. Zoopla's member terms take the same position on telephone numbers and email addresses in content.

What happens if a description contradicts the material information fields?

You have a misleading action and a data quality breach at the same time. Portals can suppress or remove the listing, and an enforcer reading both will treat the inconsistency as evidence the file was never checked. Read the fields and the description together before the listing goes live.

Does the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act apply across the whole UK?

The unfair commercial practices provisions apply across the United Kingdom. The property law sitting underneath differs, which is why Scotland has Home Reports and England and Wales do not, and why the government's June 2026 roadmap covers England and Wales.

Sources

• Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, legislation.gov.uk
• Unfair commercial practices, CMA207, 18 November 2025, Competition and Markets Authority
• Rightmove Agent and Developer Technical Guidelines, January 2026, Rightmove
• Zoopla member criteria and guidelines, effective 1 December 2025, Zoopla
• Trading Standards issues working definitions of common agency terms, August 2023, Estate Agent Today
• Clarity provided on property advertising terms, Propertymark
• Home Report, mygov.scot
• Home buying and selling reform roadmap, updated 19 June 2026, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government

Last verified: 2026-09-02