On-Market Canvassing: How Agents Win Listings From Rivals

Writing to a vendor who is already on the market with another agent is legal, common and, done badly, the fastest way to an Ombudsman complaint. The vendor has a contract, the other agent has a board up, and your letter arrives in the middle of both.

Done well, on-market canvassing is the most targeted estate agent canvassing there is. You know the home is for sale, you know the asking price, and the portals tell you how long it has sat. In the North West, homes that sold subject to contract in Q3 2026 took 66 days from first listing (Propalt data). A listing well past that may belong to a vendor whose plans are not going to schedule.

So when can you write, what can you say, and which listings are worth the stamp?

Is on-market canvassing allowed?

Yes. Nothing in the Property Ombudsman (TPO) Code of Practice for Residential Estate Agents bans writing to a seller who has instructed another agent. The code does set conditions on how you do it, and several apply directly. The current edition for England, Wales and Northern Ireland is TPOE27-9, March 2026.

• Clause 3a. You must not use unfair methods when seeking new business. Canvassing material must be truthful, not misleading, and say clearly who it is from.

• Clause 3d. Before a consumer commits to your services, you must point out that they may end up paying fees to more than one agent where another agent was previously instructed.

• Clause 3f. If the vendor asks you to stop canvassing them, you must act promptly.

• Clause 5b. You must not harass anyone to gain instructions, or repeatedly try to gain instructions in a way likely to cause offence.

• Clause 5t. When you take the instruction, you must ask whether the seller has previously instructed another agent, ask to see that agreement, and check they will not be in breach of contract.

• Clause 7g. You must not replace, hide or remove another agent's board without the seller's permission or without notifying that agent.

The code has no clause that names "disparaging competitors", so do not read the silence as permission. The CAP Code bans marketing that discredits or denigrates a competitor, and TPO clause 1e rules out methods that are dishonest, manipulative or involve misrepresentation. Write about what you do, never about the other agent.

"The vendor's contract is the other agent's business. The dual-fee warning is yours."

Data protection still applies: post to a named owner needs a UK GDPR lawful basis (the ICO lists legitimate interests or consent for postal marketing), a privacy notice and a working opt-out. See our canvassing letter templates for a privacy line you can reuse.

Which listings should you target?

Listings that show a vendor's plan is not working. Three signals do most of the work.

The scale is large. Propalt's quarterly market data for the North West in Q3 2026 shows:

• 7,190 new Rightmove listings in the quarter reduced below their first listed price.

• 66 days from first listing to SSTC (Rightmove), against 69 days nationally.

• 25.6% withdrawn. 7,173 homes left the portals without a sale agreed.

Sellers of stalled listings may also be open to letting, which gives lettings teams a second angle: rental yield figures for similar homes nearby.

When should you write around sole agency periods?

Before the contract ends, so your name is in the house when the vendor decides whether to renew. A sole agency agreement can set a minimum term and a notice period, and TPO clause 5i requires agents to define and distinguish "sole agency" and "sole selling rights" clearly. You cannot see the other agent's terms, so do not try to guess the end date in your letter.

What you can do is time your approach to the signals:

• Write once the listing passes the local days to SSTC figure. In the North West that means letters from roughly week ten.

• Avoid the obvious weeks. Many agents send at two, four, six and eight weeks. Once a listing passes your threshold, odd weeks put your letter on the mat alone: in the North West, weeks 11, 13 and 15. Check how your data provider counts "weeks on market" before you set the schedule.

• Give reductions time. A vendor who has just reduced wants to see if it works. Four weeks later, if viewings have slowed, your letter arrives when confidence in the plan is lowest.

• Wait on withdrawals. Writing the week a home is withdrawn reads as opportunistic. Four or more weeks gives the vendor time to reconsider.

Set a separate threshold for each property type. In the North West in Q3 2026, terraced homes reached sale agreed in 54 days and semi-detached homes in 58, while detached homes took 77 days and flats 96 (Propalt data).

Each letter must carry the dual-fee warning, and you must stop at the first request.

What should an on-market canvassing letter say?

Three things: a local fact, what you would do, and an invitation. Nothing about the current agent.

1. A fact the vendor can check. What similar homes on their street or postcode sector sold for, and how long they took to agree a sale. Let the vendor compare it with their own experience.

2. What you would do. Your buyer register for that property type, how you price, how you report on viewings. Be specific and only claim what you can evidence (TPO clause 7n: claiming a sale another agent made is misleading).

3. An easy next step. A second opinion, a call, a booking link. Frame it as a conversation for when the vendor is free to talk.

4. The dual-fee line. "If you are currently in an agreement with another agent, please check its terms before instructing anyone else, as you could be liable to pay fees to more than one agent."

For the checkable fact, our guide to researching property valuations covers property history, local market data and sold comparables.

Revisit owners you valued who instructed someone else. Keep the tone helpful: a short update on what has sold nearby since your visit, with no hint of "I told you so".

For the conversation that follows, see how to win the instruction when the owner is not ready to sell.

How do you build an on-market canvassing list?

Start with every live listing in your patch, then filter to the signals above. In Audience Builder:

• For Sale with a minimum time on market set above your local figure.

• Reduction for listings now below first listed price.

• Withdrawn for homes that left the portals without a sale agreed.

• Exclude named agency brands, starting with your own branch, so you never canvass your own vendors, and any agency you have agreed not to target.

Feed each audience into a letter sequence with spacing that avoids the two-four-six-eight pattern. Our guide to the rule of seven covers how to plan follow-ups that add a new fact each time, and canvassing with seller reports shows how to send a property-specific report to the vendors you most want.

📌 KEY TAKEAWAY

On-market canvassing is allowed under the TPO code, with conditions: truthful content, a dual-fee warning, no harassment, prompt action on stop requests, and checks on the previous agreement before you take the instruction. Target the listings whose plan is visibly stalling: long time on market against the local figure (66 days in the North West in Q3 2026), price reductions and withdrawals. Write off the usual two-week cycle, give reductions and withdrawals four weeks, and keep every letter about local evidence and your own service. Propalt's Audience Builder lets you build those For Sale, Reduction and Withdrawn lists with named agency brands excluded.

SOURCES & DATA REFERENCES

1. The Property Ombudsman (March 2026). 'Code of Practice for Residential Estate Agents (TPOE27-9).' Clauses 1e, 3a, 3d, 3f, 5b, 5i, 5t, 7g and 7n on canvassing, dual fees, harassment, sole agency definitions, previous agreements, boards and misleading claims. tpos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/TPOE27-9-Code-of-Practice-for-Residential-Estate-Agents-A4-March-2026.pdf

2. The Property Ombudsman (accessed October 2026). 'Codes of Practice.' Confirms TPOE27-9 (March 2026) as the current residential estate agents code for England, Wales and Northern Ireland. tpos.co.uk/about-us/codes-of-practice/

3. Advertising Standards Authority (22 April 2025). 'Denigration.' CAP Code rule against discrediting or denigrating competitors. asa.org.uk/advice-online/denigration.html

4. Information Commissioner's Office (accessed October 2026). 'Sending direct marketing: choosing your lawful basis.' Post outside PECR; legitimate interests or consent. ico.org.uk/for-organisations/direct-marketing-and-privacy-and-electronic-communications/sending-direct-marketing-choosing-your-lawful-basis/

5. Propalt (October 2026). Quarterly market data, North West, Q3 2026: 7,190 new Rightmove listings in the quarter (counted per listing) reduced below first listed price; 66 days from first listing to SSTC (Rightmove); 7,173 withdrawals, 25.6%. National 69 days to SSTC.

6. Propalt (October 2026). Quarterly market data, North West, Q3 2026 (get_quarterly_market): days from first listing to SSTC by property type (terraced 54, semi-detached 58, detached 77, flats 96).

7. Propalt (June 2025). 'Smart letter-dropping: a guide to on-market canvassing for estate and letting agents.' Earlier version of this guide, timing advice on withdrawn and reduced listings. propalt.co.uk/resource/on-market-canvassing