AN estate agent based in Colchester has been told it must withdraw a “misleading” advert.

The SpicerHaart compliment slip, which appeared to be hand written, asked landlords to contact the agent regarding the rental of their property.

A property management company complained to the Advertising Standards Authority after a tenant took it to mean there was a problem with their tenancy.

The leaflet’s headline stated “breaking up is hard to do”, with the word hard crossed out and replaced with “easy”.

A second leaflet said the company, which has its headquarters at Colwyn House in Sheepen Place, had something to talk to the homeowner about regarding the property. A resident complained it was distressing and misleading.

SpicerHaart said the ad sought to explain it assisted customers in avoiding the penalty of being locked in to their current agent, and it did not consider the ad to be misleading. The Advertising Standards Authority upheld the complaint.

The authority said: “We considered that, because readers would still be liable for leaving fees, which SpicerHaart was offering to pay temporarily in order to enable people to switch estate agents, but not permanently, the headline claim was contradicted by the qualifying text.”