How we verify

A verified review on ByTenants comes from a tenant we checked actually lived in that building. Here is exactly how, and exactly what it does and doesn't mean.

What verification proves, and what it doesn't

It proves residency

We are confident the person lived in that building, around the dates they gave.

Not that it's true

A real tenant can still be wrong, unfair, or remember it differently. It tells you who is talking, not whether they're right.

The tenant chooses

Nobody can buy it for them: not a landlord, not a property manager. We never take money from a party whose building is reviewed here.

Unverified reviews are published too

Anyone with an account can write a review. If they don't verify, the review still publishes, labelled not verified, shown after the verified ones, and not counted in the building's score. Our score is calculated from verified reviews only, and only once a building has at least three of them.

How a tenant verifies

It's optional, done once per home rather than once per review, and no step requires a document. In order of how much it asks:

1. 01

   Move-in or move-out photos

   Kept in the tenant's private home record. We read when and roughly where they were taken, and check it against the building and the dates they lived there.
2. 02

   Account history

   For example, that the building was chosen before anything else was added.
3. 03

   A rent receipt

   Read in the browser with personal details covered.
4. 04

   A neighbour

   Someone already verified in the building confirms them.
5. 05

   A utility statement or a lease

   Optional, never required.

Each adds to a score, and the score decides what happens next. A declined tenant can always ask a person to look again.

Where a document names the building's owner or managing agent, we compare it with the city's own registration for that building, which we hold independently of the tenant.

What we keep: nothing

A receipt, statement or lease is read in memory and thrown away in the same step. We keep only the outcome: which checks passed, the score, and the date. No file, no image, no name, no rent amount. Retention of verification documents: zero days. We can't be made to hand over what we don't have.

Photos in a tenant's home record are different: they're the tenant's own, kept encrypted because the tenant chose to keep them, and deleted when they say so.

What it can't stop

Any check can be fooled by someone determined enough. That's why verification decides how a review is labelled and whether it's counted, not whether it's allowed, and why every review, verified or not, is read by a person before it appears. See how we moderate.