Review policy

Reviews on Yardz only count if they're real. Every review is tied to a move the reviewer was genuinely part of, and scores follow the individual professional, not just their firm. This policy explains who can review, what's allowed, how scores work and what we do about fake reviews. It reflects the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 and the Competition and Markets Authority's guidance on fake reviews.

Who can leave a review

Only someone who was a buyer or seller on a move can review the professionals who worked on it. Before a review counts, we check they really were part of that move, in one of three ways:

• Confirmed by the professional: the professional confirms the reviewer was their client on that move.
• Memorandum of sale: the reviewer uploads the memorandum of sale and our team checks it.
• Completion checked (strongest): a completion statement or HM Land Registry title update confirms the move happened.

Every review shows how it was verified. Stronger evidence carries more weight in a score.

How reviews work

• Reviews follow the stages of a move: offer agreed, ID checks and instruction, searches, mortgage and survey, enquiries, exchange and completion. You only review the stages your move reached, and only the professionals who were active in each.
• If a move fell through, you can review it up to the stage it reached, and tell us why it fell through.
• For each professional, you're also asked whether you'd recommend them.

How scores work

• A professional's score uses only the stages they were responsible for.
• An individual's score is theirs and moves with them if they change firm.
• A firm's score blends reviews of the firm with the scores of the people who work there now.
• New professionals start from a neutral baseline, not zero.
• Every score shows how many reviews it's based on and how they were verified.
• Nobody can pay to rank higher. Lists of professionals are ordered by verified review data only. There are no paid placements or paid badges.

What's allowed

Honest reviews of your own experience, good or bad, in your own words. We don't edit reviews to change their meaning.

What we remove

• Fake reviews: anything not based on a real experience of that move.
• Reviews written by, or for, the professional or their firm, family, friends or colleagues.
• Reviews someone was paid, rewarded or pressured to write, or to change or remove (see below).
• Personal details, abuse, discrimination, threats, or claims about someone's private life.
• Content that's unlawful, including defamatory statements presented as fact without basis.

Incentives

Professionals must not offer anything in return for a review, or for a positive one. If a review was incentivised in any way, it must say so, and we'll label it clearly. Undisclosed incentivised reviews are removed. Asking clients for an honest review is fine; asking only happy clients is not.

How we spot fake reviews

We check for duplicate accounts, several reviews of the same professional from the same device or network, sudden bursts of reviews, and reviewers who are linked to the professional. Flagged reviews are held back until our team has looked at them. We keep a written risk assessment of how fake reviews could get onto Yardz and what we do about it.

Replies and disputes

Professionals can reply publicly to any review. If they believe a review breaks this policy they can raise a dispute. While a dispute is open, the review stays visible, labelled "disputed, under review", and still counts in the score. We don't quietly remove reviews. Our dispute policy explains how disputes are decided and the possible outcomes.

Report a review

Anyone can report a review they think is fake or breaks this policy: email hello@yardz.co.uk or use the report link beside the review.