An estate agent reviews website is raising £50,000 to fight Purplebricks in court

estate agent london

Purplebricks told allAgents to remove controversial reviews from its website
The online estate agent threatened to take allAgents to court if it failed to remove the reviews
allAgents claims that it continued to get letters from Purplebricks' lawyers even after it removed the reviews
Now it's going to fight Purplebricks and it's trying to raise £50,000 in a crowdfunding campaign to pay for legal fees.

Estate agents review site allAgents is trying to raise £50,000 to fund a potential legal battle with online estate agent Purplebricks.

The pair are in a bitter dispute over the integrity of the reviews on the allAgents website.

Purplebricks wrote to allAgents in the summer asking the company to remove Purplebricks reviews from its website. It questioned the authenticity of critical write-ups and said it was considering legal action.

allAgents removed the Purplebricks reviews from its website on September 18 to avoid getting into what has the potential to become a costly legal battle.

"Due to repeated threats of legal action forcing the removal of content and negative reviews from our website, we have regrettably taken the unprecedented step in suspending the Purplebricks profile page until further notice," allAgents said in a post on its website around the time of the removal.

But after suspending the Purplebricks account, allAgents claims that it has received several follow up letters from Purplebricks' lawyers threatening legal action.

Purplebricks still isn't happy and it wants allAgents to prove that all of the reviews on its site are real.

Purplebricks wants allAgents to prove reviews are real

"We continue to seek this information and once again request that allAgents engage with us, so that we can together work to ensure that in this instance there has not been any breach of integrity on the site or abuse of it," said Stephen Parker, head of compliance at Purplebricks, according to Property Industry Eye. "We hope allAgents will now provide the requested information without undue delay."

When it comes to proving that reviews on its website are genuine, allAgents is offering little in the way of evidence, other than its word.

"The last thing we want is to go to court," allAgents writes on its website. "We've done everything possible to prevent legal action — apart from yielding to Purplebricks' demands that we acknowledge the negative reviews about them on our site are fake.

"They're not fake, they're genuine grievances from Purplebricks' customers. This is about free speech, and Purplebricks are trying to quash it by bullying us into submission. We're just a small business and they have a £60 million cash pot at their disposal."

So far allAgents has raised just over £9,000 on crowdfunding website crowdfunder.co.uk.

"Ideally, this money will never be needed, we hope that Purplebricks will finally accept these are genuine reviews. Then we can reinstate their page on allAgents and return the money to our supporters. But if they don't, we'll use it to fight Purplebricks in court."

Purpebricks did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

Here is the full post on the allAgents website:

In September allAgents suspended the Purplebricks account in an attempt to prevent a legal action, yet it has subsequently received several more letters from Purplebricks’ lawyers threatening litigation.

The last thing we want is to go to court. We’ve done everything possible to prevent legal action - apart from yielding to Purplebricks’ demands that we acknowledge the negative reviews about them on our site are fake. They’re not fake, they’re genuine grievances from Purplebricks’ customers. This is about free speech, and Purplebricks are trying to quash it by bullying us into submission. We’re just a small business and they have a £60 million cash pot at their disposal.”

We’ve been inundated with messages of support from both the reviewers and people in the industry. Some suggested we set up a fighting fund, so that we can keep on battling for free speech. Ideally, this money will never be needed, we hope that Purplebricks will finally accept these are genuine reviews. Then we can reinstate their page on allAgents and return the money to our supporters. But if they don’t, we’ll use it to fight Purplebricks in court.

Purplebricks say they have audited the reviews on the allAgents site, 29 per cent of which they claim to be fake, with a further 23 per cent lacking sufficient detail to authenticate.

We requested a copy of this audit so we could investigate these claims. But Purplebricks' lawyers declined, saying their client ‘did not want to be put to further unnecessary costs.’ We’re puzzled by this comment, as they claim to already have done the work. Furthermore their lawyers’ letters keep coming. Again, we call on Purplebricks to provide us with the results of this audit. If they don’t we can only assume that it simply doesn’t exist.

We are hoping to crowdfund £50,000 to cover its legal fees. The money will be held with allAgents’ legal team. We hope this fund will never be required. However, until Purplebricks provides the results of their audit or accept these reviews are genuine, by providing an undertaking to allow us to continue hosting their reviews free from the fear of litigation, then it will need to exist. This is about far more than just allAgents, this is about free speech.