The rules a listing has to satisfy

Why these particular rules

Every rule here exists because a live listing was breaking it. A one-bedroom flat in Spintex recorded two bedrooms. A retail parade was categorised as an office. A short-let studio was priced monthly. Several properties shared the same photograph.

None of that is exotic. It is what happens when the only question asked before publishing is whether the listing is switched on. On a platform whose proposition is that its listings can be trusted, a listing that contradicts itself is not a cosmetic problem.

What blocks publication

These are errors. A listing carrying any of them cannot be published until it is corrected.

• A title claiming a bedroom count the record contradicts — "1-bedroom" on a two-bedroom flat
• Retail wording — shop, store, boutique, parade, mall, kiosk — on a listing typed as an office
• A short-let demanding more than one month's rent in advance
• Rent of zero or less; a negative advance or deposit
• Fewer than one bathroom
• No photographs at all
• Photographs already used on another of your listings
• A missing region, city or neighbourhood
• A missing title

What is flagged but not blocked

Warnings are shown to you and to review staff and do not stop publication. They exist where the right answer is a judgement someone should make rather than a rule that guesses.

• A short-let whose billing period looks wrong for a short stay
• The same photograph appearing twice within one listing
• An advance above twelve months on a residential or student property

Where this stands today

The rules above run when you submit. Anything marked as an error stops the listing being created and is listed back to you in full rather than one at a time; anything marked as a check is shown but does not block you, because a warning means look again, not you may not.

They are not the only thing between a bad listing and the public. A new listing is created as pending_review, and even once approved it stays out of public view until the property carries an evidence-backed verification tier.

One limit worth knowing: the duplicate-photograph check compares the files you are uploading against photographs already on your other properties. It does not compare against other people's listings, so it catches a listing recycled from your own portfolio and not one copied from someone else's.