Review policy
Last updated
Apartment reviews on JolietRent come from people who live or lived in the building. This page explains exactly how they're handled. The rules are built into the site's code and database, not just written here.
Who can write a review
- Current and former residents only. You confirm this when you submit.
- You can't review a building you own, manage or work for, or one where a relative or close friend does.
- You can't be paid, discounted or offered anything for writing a review, positive or negative. If a landlord offers you something for a review, please tell us.
- One review per person per building.
How we verify reviews
- You submit ratings, your review text and the year you moved in.
- We email you a confirmation link. Your review does nothing until you click it, and the link expires after 48 hours.
- The confirmed review goes to our moderation queue.
Your email address is never shown publicly or shared with the landlord.
The only reasons we reject a review
Moderators can choose only from these four reasons. The system doesn't allow any other.
| Reason | What it means |
|---|---|
| Profanity | Slurs or profanity. We don't reject a review for being negative, blunt or angry. |
| Personal information | Names of individual staff or residents, phone numbers, unit numbers, email addresses or anything else that identifies a private person. |
| Threats | Threats of violence or harm against anyone. |
| Off-topic | Content that isn't about living at the building, such as ads, spam or a review of a different property. |
We publish negative reviews that follow this policy. We don't edit the words or ratings of any review, and every moderation decision is logged.
What landlords can and can't do
- A building's verified manager can post one public reply to each review. Replies are labeled as coming from management.
- Landlords can't edit, hide or remove reviews, and can't see who wrote them.
- Paying for a featured listing never changes a review or rating. Payment status isn't connected to the review system at all.
- A landlord who believes a review breaks this policy can contact us. We review it against the four reasons above and nothing else.
How ratings are shown
Reviewers rate value, maintenance, management and noise from 1 to 5. We show a building's average rating only after it has at least three published reviews, and we always show the number of reviews beside the average. Until then, individual reviews are shown without an average.
No fake reviews
JolietRent launched with zero reviews. We have never written, bought, generated or seeded reviews, and we never will. This follows the Federal Trade Commission's rule on consumer reviews and testimonials, which bans fake and AI-generated reviews, paying for reviews, undisclosed insider reviews and suppressing negative reviews.