ratemyflat Content Guidelines

Welcome to ratemyflat. We're here to enable tenants to share honest, helpful reviews of rental properties across Aotearoa. Your reviews help future tenants make informed decisions and encourage landlords and property managers to maintain quality, healthy homes.

To keep ratemyflat safe, fair, and valuable for everyone, these guidelines explain what makes a great review, what's not allowed, and how we uphold the standards set by New Zealand law — specifically the Harmful Digital Communications Act 2015 (HDCA).

What Makes a Great ratemyflat review?

Your review is most helpful when it's:

About the property and your tenancy. Focus on the physical property, its condition, and your experience of living there — heating, insulation, ventilation, moisture, draught-stopping, and general upkeep. You can also comment on your experience of the property management *service* related to the property, such as how maintenance requests were handled.

Truthful and based on your genuine experience. Every review should reflect your actual time living at the property. When you submit a review, you confirm it's genuine and truthful to the best of your knowledge — please make sure that's the case.

Specific and constructive. Detail helps. Instead of just "it was cold," try "the heat pump struggled to warm the living room during winter, and there was mould in the bathroom." Both the Best Thing and Improvements sections are opportunities for balanced, helpful feedback.

What's Not Allowed

No private personal details about individuals

Do not include personal information about individuals — landlords, property managers, or anyone else — that is private and not relevant to the property itself.

Not allowed: naming individual landlords or property managers (e.g. "John Smith the landlord"), their private phone numbers, email addresses, home addresses, or physical descriptions of specific people.

Why it matters: This protects privacy and prevents harassment, as required by the HDCA.

No false factual claims presented as fact

There is a clear difference between sharing your genuine opinion and making a false statement of fact.

Your genuine opinion is always welcome: "I felt the house was cold in winter" or "I believe maintenance was slow to respond" are opinions — they reflect your experience.

Not allowed: stating as fact something you know to be untrue, such as claiming "the landlord stole my bond" if that hasn't been established, or stating "there is no insulation" when you know there is. Fabricating events or disputes that didn't occur also falls into this category.

No personal attacks or harassment

We don't tolerate abusive, threatening, or harassing content aimed at individuals.

Not allowed: name-calling, derogatory language, threats of any kind, or content that incites hatred or discrimination based on someone's background, gender, religion, or other characteristics.

Keep it relevant

Your review should focus on the rental property and your tenancy experience. Content unrelated to the property — personal grievances about unrelated matters, political statements, or advertising — is not appropriate.

Reviewing the Property vs. Commenting on Individuals

This distinction matters, and it's one of the most important things to keep in mind.

Reviewing the *service* associated with a property is fine. Commenting on a specific *individual* is where the risk lies — and it's where the law is most relevant.

Fine: "Communication from the property management agency was slow" or "maintenance requests were handled efficiently."

Not allowed: "Jane Smith, the property manager, is an incompetent person" or naming your landlord and making personal character judgements about them.

Focus on what happened and how it affected your tenancy — not on personal assessments of the people involved. Where possible, direct your comments at the agency or company rather than a named individual.

What Happens If Your Review Receives a Complaint?

We understand that sharing your experience can sometimes lead to pushback — and not every complaint is made in good faith. Some landlords may complain simply because they don't like a negative review. These guidelines exist precisely to distinguish legitimate complaints from those that aren't.

Here's what happens if a complaint about your review is assessed as having potential merit:

1. You'll receive an email. We'll contact you at the address associated with your account. This email will explain the nature of the complaint and give you a window to respond — you have until 48 hours after the complaint was submitted to take action. We'll also send you a reminder 2 hours before that deadline if you haven't responded yet. We encourage you to read the email carefully — this is your opportunity to address the complaint on your terms.

2. You have four options:

  • Withdraw your review. If you agree with the complaint or no longer want your review to be live, you can choose to remove it. The review will be taken down immediately.
  • Edit your review. If you believe you can adjust the review to address the complaint while still conveying your genuine experience, you can edit and resubmit it. Once you save your edits, the complaint is automatically closed and the complainant is notified that the review has been amended.
  • Refuse removal. If you believe your review fully complies with these guidelines and the complaint is unfounded, you can refuse to take it down. You'll be asked to provide a brief reason, which only our team will see. Your review remains live, and a neutral flag is added noting that it has been subject to a complaint and that you have chosen to keep it up. Under New Zealand law, the legal responsibility for the content then rests with you as the author.
  • No response. If you don't act before the 48-hour deadline, your review will be removed by default. This is the safest course of action under the HDCA, and it protects you from ongoing exposure to a legal claim. However, you can still respond after the deadline — if you do so within 12 months, your review can be restored (as-is or edited). The removal notification will include a link for this.

Our goal is fairness — to you as a reviewer and to the people who may be the subject of a review. These guidelines, and this process, exist to protect both.

What We Will and Won't Remove

We will remove content that clearly violates these guidelines — reviews containing private personal details, false factual claims, harassment, or content unrelated to the tenancy.

We will not remove reviews simply because a landlord or property management agency disagrees with your rating, dislikes the feedback, or finds it embarrassing. Your right to share a genuine experience — even a critical one — is protected, as long as it adheres to these guidelines.

Your Reviews and the Law: The Harmful Digital Communications Act 2015

ratemyflat operates under New Zealand law, including the Harmful Digital Communications Act 2015. The Act sets out 10 Communication Principles for online content. Here they are in plain English:

  1. Keep private details private. Don't share sensitive personal information about anyone — their home address, medical details, sexual orientation, or other private facts.
  2. No bullying or harassment. Don't send messages designed to upset, intimidate, or torment someone.
  3. No threats. Don't threaten anyone with harm or violence.
  4. No encouraging self-harm. Don't post content that encourages someone to harm themselves.
  5. No encouraging illegal acts. Don't encourage others to break the law.
  6. Be truthful about facts. Don't make untrue claims about a person that could harm their reputation. Genuine opinions are fine — false statements of fact are not.
  7. Respect cultural identity. Don't be grossly offensive about someone's race, ethnicity, or cultural identity.
  8. Don't promote discrimination. Don't incite discrimination based on someone's characteristics — gender, religion, disability, or others.
  9. No humiliating or degrading content. Don't post things designed to publicly shame or degrade someone.
  10. Keep it decent. Don't post sexually explicit or highly offensive material about individuals.

Questions?

If you have a question about these guidelines or want to understand how a specific situation might be handled, contact us at disputes [at] ratemyflat [dot] org [dot] nz.