A lettings agency as reported by a local newspaper’s website has decided to ban potential rival tenants bidding against each other to win the race for rental properties.

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The Bristol Live news website reports the lettings director of the agency decided  to stop the practice after what the website calls “direct action lobbying” from the self-ordained ‘community union’ rental activist group Acorn.

The Bristol activists had already threatened to start a concerted campaign earlier this year against any lettings agencies in the city that allowed rival tenants for a property to submit bids above the asking price which is not illegal.

Bristol Live this week reports: “On Monday a large group of campaigners set off on a tour of CJ Hole branches, with a list of ten in their sights, starting in Kingswood and Downend, before moving into the city at Church Road and then at the original CJ Hole branch and the firm’s headquarters in Bishopston. At each one, the group chanted, carried placards and lobbied passers-by about their cause, while a delegation entered the offices and asked managers inside to sign the pledge to stop encouraging tenants to bid.”

The website’s story reported the doors of the head branch had been locked with staff inside. Activists had stuck posters on the windows demanding a meeting with the lettings director with a ‘wanted’ header.

A spokesperson for the agency told Bristol Live: “I can confirm that CJ Hole do not encourage the practice of bidding on properties, and once we were aware of the campaign and were able to sit down with the people from Acorn and go through what the pledge was all about, we were happy to sign that day. It’s not something we do.”

The group told Bristol Live its supporters and members are “ready to visit lettings agencies” to help ‘refresh’ them of their pledges, it is calling all tenants to contact them of any cases of rival bidding is being allowed by agencies or landlords.