Experience-based reviews
Reviews should describe what a resident personally experienced, such as maintenance response times, noise levels, parking, fees, amenities, and move-out process.
Trust & Safety
Built for safer apartment transparency.
BeforeLease is designed to help renters share useful apartment experiences without becoming a complaint board. Reviews should be structured, experience-based, and focused on quality-of-life details that matter before signing a lease.
Core Standard
Real resident experience, clearly structured, carefully moderated.
Structured scoring
BeforeLease uses category-based scores so renters can compare apartments more clearly instead of relying only on vague star ratings.
Verification-focused
BeforeLease is designed to give more weight to reviews from people who can verify that they lived at the property while keeping their public identity private.
Moderated before publishing
Reviews may be screened for private information, employee names, threats, unsupported criminal accusations, or content unrelated to the apartment experience.
What belongs on BeforeLease
Useful reviews focus on apartment conditions and resident experience.
- ✓Maintenance response times
- ✓Noise, parking, and package issues
- ✓Move-in and move-out experiences
- ✓Fee clarity and deposit experiences
- ✓Amenities, safety, cleanliness, and common areas
- ✓Photos of apartment-related conditions without private information
What does not belong
Reviews may be edited, rejected, or held for review when they create privacy, safety, or legal risk.
- !Employee names or personal attacks
- !Threats, harassment, or discriminatory language
- !Private documents, IDs, mail, license plates, or faces
- !Unsupported criminal accusations
- !Unit numbers or details that could identify a resident
- !Content unrelated to the apartment experience
Photo and document safety
Apartment photos
Photos should show apartment-related conditions, amenities, parking areas, package rooms, maintenance issues, or common areas without exposing private information.
Verification documents
Future verification should only request limited proof of residency, such as an address/date page or utility bill. Public profiles should not display personal documents or identities.
BeforeLease is a prototype. These standards are intended to guide the product’s trust and safety design as review submission, verification, and moderation features are developed.