Can a builder use my house to advertise other developments with my permission

[Mandy]

Hi, I bought my Barratts home approx 3 years ago now. I have just seen our local paper and they are advertising a new development, about 5 miles away, using my house (the one incidently that we saw when we bought the house) to advertise this development. Underneath the picture it states the address of the new development, which is untrue and also no where on the advert is there an * advising that this is not an actual property. 1st question, can they do this, surely it is misselling/miss-advertising; 2nd question can I complain and request a fee for using my house to advertise new developments. Surely they can't do this without my consent.

note - title above should read "without my permission"
Any ideas.

Many thanks.

[IFA]

I'm not so sure that there's anything wrong in what they are doing although I'm not a legal expert so the following is just my personal thoughts for you to consider.....

Firstly, the copyright of the image that they are using belongs to them (the copyright of any photograph, no matter what the subject, always belongs to the photographer and not the owner of any property depicted in it) and at the time of the picture being taken you were not the owner of the property so my guess is that they didn't need to ask your permission to take the picture and therefore don't need your permission to reproduce it for any purpose.

Secondly, although the house is not actually on the development that is being advertised the picture is no doubt only being used to illustrate the type and design of a typical property that might be available when the development is complete rather than purporting to be an actual house that is available. If the new development is just a building site then the builders commonly use an artists impression or other image to show an example of the finished product rather than using a picture of a muddy field to advertise the properties.

I guess it would have been good practice for them to have a footnote stating that the image shown is for illustration purposes only and didn't represent an actual property on the site, but so long as they are not publishing your address or in any other way implying that the property that you now own and live in is on the market for sale then I don't see how you are being disadvantaged by their actions and therefore I am unsure what it is you would like compensating for.

It might be worthwhile posting this question in the solicitors / legal forum to get an opinion from someone who may know differently.

[New Homes Expert]

I think IFA has got this onw just about right.
It is their photo and anyone can take a photo of anyone else's house from a public area, with or without the owner's permission.

If they are misleading prospective buyers then there may be a case under the Property Misdescriptions act 1992.

From your point of view ther is nothing you can do.