Our Terms and Conditions outline the specific circumstances under which we will consider removing content from our platform. Reviews will not be removed outside of these scenarios.
IMPORTANT
If RateMyAgent were to remove genuine reviews at the request of agents or agencies, we risk breaching Consumer Law in Australia or the Fair Trading Act in New Zealand. This, as well as our Terms & Conditions, is why any request to do so will be declined.
Situations Where Reviews May Be Removed:
Content guidelines violations: If the review contains prohibited content such as profanity, abuse, defamatory material, or other content that breaches our guidelines.
Fraudulent reviews: The review was not left by a legitimate buyer or seller of property (or someone authorised on their behalf)
User-initiated removal: If the original reviewer chooses to edit or delete their own review
4. Matching IP Address: If a review shares the same IP address as the reviewed agent or agency, it is classified as a conflict of interest even if the review is genuine. 5. Use of Disposable or Temporary Email Addresses: Reviews submitted using temporary or disposable email domains are flagged and remain unpublished until corrected. 6. Agency-Associated Email Domains: Reviews from email addresses linked to the agent or agency violate verification standards and are removed. 7. Relocation of Reviews: Occasionally, a review is mistakenly listed under a profile other than the one it mentions, resulting in its relocation to the correct profile.
Every "not recommended" review comes through to Customer Support and is read before going live onto the site.
In some cases, we may not publish a review on RateMyAgent. A review might get rejected because of reason 1 or reason 2 above.
containing inappropriate language
completely unrelated to an agent's professional practice,
submitted by someone who did not sell or buy/ tenant or rent the property or review on such person's behalf.
Reviews flagged due to these technical reasons are addressed with careful verification processes to maintain platform integrity.
What if the client wants to edit or remove their review?
If the person who has submitted a review (good or bad) wishes to have it removed or edited, they can use the review confirmation email to go in and edit/remove their review.
If your review has been flagged and removed, here are the steps you can take to address the issue:
Correcting Temporary or Invalid Emails: Ask the client to correct the email issue and resubmit the review. Sometimes this can include re-publishing using the 'Import' function with a valid email.
Avoiding Shared IPs: Ensure unique networks are used for submitting reviews, avoiding those linked to the agent.
Resolution for Profile Relocations: Check the new agent profile where the review has been reassigned and verify updates.
If they are experiencing any difficulty, they can let us know they would like to speak with someone from our team..
Can my client edit their review?
Your reviewer does have the opportunity to edit their review.
Clients are able to edit their own reviews if they have created a username and password. When they first leave the review, they have the opportunity to create a username and password (this is not compulsory to leave a review and is only optional)
Once they log in to their user account, they can click their Username and then My Reviews.
From this page, they will be able to edit, view and delete their reviews. The client will be able to edit or delete the review if it's within 60 days of submitting the review.
Alternatively, the reviewer can ask to connect with a team member; this request must be sent from the same email address that the original review request was sent from. Make sure to include the address of the listing, the agent they are reviewing and their requested changes. Our support team can be contacted by the chat icon in the bottom right corner of the screen.
Reviews cannot be edited once an agent has replied to the review.
Best Practices for Avoiding Review Removal
To avoid your reviews being flagged or removed:
Always use valid, permanent email addresses.
Submit reviews via distinct networks unrelated to the agent's agency.
Follow RateMyAgent's verification guidelines for submitting reviews.