The Unit File

Site Guidelines

Last updated: October 13, 2026

The Unit File helps renters check a building before they sign. These guidelines explain, in plain English, what belongs in a report, what doesn't, and what happens when something breaks the rules.

They're part of our Terms of Use. When you file, you'll see: "By filing, you agree to the Terms and Guidelines." Questions: legal@theunitfile.com. The site is run by The Unit File LLC.

The basics

  • Report on a building you lived in. Not one you toured, visited or heard about.
  • Tell your own story. What you saw, paid and went through.
  • Keep people out of it. No names, unit numbers or personal details.
  • Be honest. Say what happened. Opinions are fine. Made-up facts are not.

You don't need an account. Your name is never shown. But your report is public, so leave out details that point to you or anyone else.

We don't fact-check reports. We don't confirm who wrote a report, that they lived at the building, or that what they say is true. Reports carry no verification label, and showing a report doesn't mean we've checked whether it's accurate. The site footer says it too: "Renter reports are renters' own opinions and experiences. We don't fact-check them. Not legal advice." Read each report as one renter's experience and opinion. Reports aren't a credit report, an inspection or legal advice.

What a report includes

  • Would you sign again? Yes or no.
  • Ratings from 1 (Poor) to 5 (Excellent) for things like management, maintenance, noise, safety, value, amenities and pests. Each report also gets one overall star score. See How star ratings are calculated.
  • Quick answers such as whether your deposit came back, and parking.
  • Tags and short notes about how it went, plus "What you wish you knew."
  • One photo, if you want (see below).
  • What you paid, if you want (see below).

Good reports

  • Be specific. "Maintenance took 11 days to fix the heat in January" helps more than "they suck."
  • Stick to the building and how it's run: maintenance, management, the leasing office, noise, safety, pests, parking, fees, deposits, amenities, value.
  • Say when. Things change. "In 2024…" helps the next renter.
  • Rate the right building. If you're comparing two places, report on each one on its own page.

Facts vs. opinions: say it as your experience

  • Describe what happened, not what you assume. "Management kept $600 of my deposit for 'carpet cleaning' and didn't send an itemized list" is better than "they steal deposits."
  • Don't accuse anyone of a crime. Leave out words like "fraud," "theft," "illegal" or "scam" stated as fact about a person or company. Describe what happened and let readers decide.
  • Health: say what you saw and what you went through ("there was visible mold under the sink for three months; I had headaches while I lived there"). Don't state medical conclusions as fact ("the mold caused my illness").
  • Code, inspections, legal issues: if you mention a citation or inspection, say how you know (for example, "a city inspector came out in March 2024"). Don't say a landlord "broke the law" as a fact.
  • If you believe you were treated unfairly because of a protected trait, describe what happened. You can also file a fair-housing complaint with HUD or your state or local agency. A report here is not a complaint to anyone.
  • No individual staff, by name or by obvious description. Talk about "the leasing office," "management" or "the maintenance team."
  • Mark opinions as opinions. "I felt unsafe walking to my car at night" is fine.

Not allowed: the reasons we hide reports

We may hide a report, in our discretion and in good faith, if we believe it:

  1. is fake or spam. For example, it's about a place the writer didn't live, it's made up, it's a duplicate, it's an ad, it was written by an owner, manager, employee or competitor of the building (or someone acting for them), or it was written in exchange for money, a discount, a gift or another benefit.
  2. is defamatory on its face, harassing, threatening, abusive or obscene. That includes threats, slurs and personal attacks.
  3. includes personal information or names a private person, including individual staff. That includes names, unit or apartment numbers, phone numbers, email addresses, license plates, social media handles, photos of people, or anything that points to a specific person or household (doxxing).
  4. is discriminatory. That includes attacks on people, or comments about who should or shouldn't live there, based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, family status (such as having kids) or any other protected trait.
  5. is clearly false or misleading on its face.
  6. is off-topic. It isn't about living at this building.
  7. is the subject of a copyright or legal request. For example, a valid copyright (DMCA) notice, a court order, content that is plainly illegal, or content the writer doesn't have rights to (like copied listing text or someone else's photos).

These are the only reasons we hide a report. The same list is in our Terms, and it's the same list we pick from when we hide a report. We apply these rules the same way whether a report is positive or negative. A report's rating or tone is never a reason to hide it. We also don't decide who's right about disputed facts. A report isn't "clearly false" just because someone disagrees with it.

We also remove a report when the renter who wrote it asks us to (see below).

Photos

You can add one photo to a report. It's optional.

  • File types: JPEG, PNG, WEBP or GIF. Max size: 5 MB.
  • Every photo is reviewed before anyone sees it. It shows up only if we approve it. If we reject it, we delete it.
  • What approval means: our review only checks for privacy and our photo rules (no faces, unit numbers, documents or content you don't have rights to). Approval doesn't mean we've confirmed what a photo shows, where or when it was taken, or that we agree with the report.

Good photos show the building and its condition: a leak, mold, pests, broken appliances, damage, the parking lot, hallways or other shared spaces.

We'll reject photos that show:

  • people's faces;
  • unit numbers, door numbers or mailboxes;
  • names, mail, packages, leases or other documents with personal details;
  • license plates;
  • anything you didn't take or don't have the right to share;
  • nudity, gore or anything offensive; or
  • anything that breaks the rules above.

What you paid (rent)

Sharing what you paid is optional. You can add it on the report form or on the Add what you paid page.

  • Share the rent you actually paid, not the listing or asking price.
  • On the report form, we ask for the year, floor plan and monthly rent. On the Add what you paid page, we ask for the month and year your lease started, how long the lease was, and monthly rent. We never ask for your unit number.
  • A year's rent shows up only after at least 3 renters report it for that building (or, on a unit's page, at least 5 renters for that unit). We show the middle (median) amount, rounded to the nearest $25, never a list of individual amounts and never anyone's name. Below 5 renters we don't show the exact count.
  • We don't check rent figures. They're what renters tell us they paid, not listing prices or offers.
  • Open to everyone: anyone can see a building's year-by-year rent figures. You don't have to share what you paid to see them. Adding what you paid to the file is optional, and your name is never shown.

How scores work

Building Unit Score. The Unit Score is a math summary of renters' category ratings and, once at least 3 renters have answered, the share who would sign again. It doesn't use each report's overall star score. Scores show how many renter reports they come from. A file with only 1 or 2 reports says "No Unit Score yet." With 3 or 4 reports, numbers are labeled Limited data. A full Unit Score appears at 5 or more reports.

Company scores. Company pages group buildings that public listings show under the same management company.

  • A company score appears only after at least 10 renter reports across those buildings. It averages renters' 1–5 ratings for management and maintenance, and shows the share who'd sign again and the share who got their deposit back in full.
  • Most-tagged issue is the issue renters tagged most often. It comes from renter tags only, not from reading comments.
  • Highest and lowest average rating by city is shown only for a city with at least 10 reports for that company. It averages each report's overall star score, which can come from a "would sign again" answer. See How star ratings are calculated.
  • A company score is a math summary of renters' own reports, which we don't fact-check. It isn't our opinion of the company.
  • Which company manages a building comes from public listings. It may be out of date or wrong. Each report reflects the time the renter says they lived there, which may be before the current manager. Companies can send corrections to legal@theunitfile.com.

Details: How Unit Score works.

How star ratings are calculated

Each report also gets its own overall star score from 1 to 5. The report form doesn't ask for it, so we work it out from the renter's answers:

  • If the renter rated any categories (such as maintenance, noise, management, safety, value, parking, amenities or pests), it's the average of those ratings. Some places round it to the nearest whole star (a half rounds up).
  • If the renter didn't rate any categories, we use their answer to "Would you sign here again?": Yes counts as 4 stars. No counts as 2 stars.

This score is shown on each report. Rounded to the nearest whole star, it's also what the Rating breakdown on a building page and the highest and lowest average rating by city on a company page are built from. The star ratings we share with search engines can include it too. So those numbers can include reports where the renter only answered "would sign again."

The Unit Score and the company management and maintenance scores don't use this score. If we change how this works, we'll update this section.

What happens when a report is hidden

  • We don't edit or rewrite what renters write. We either show a report as submitted or hide it.
  • We hide reports only for the reasons listed above. Each time, we record which of those reasons we used, along with the date.
  • A hidden report no longer appears on the site and isn't counted in Unit Scores or company scores.
  • We keep a private record of hidden reports so we can handle disputes and stop repeat abuse.
  • We never hide reports because someone paid us, or because a report is negative.
  • We may not catch every problem. If you see one, tell us.

No paid removal. Ever.

Landlords, owners and property managers can't pay to remove, hide, bury or change a report or a score. We don't sell takedowns, and we don't have a paid dispute service. These public guidelines are the rule for what comes down.

For landlords and property managers: how to dispute a report

Email legal@theunitfile.com with "Dispute" in the subject. It's free. We never charge for reviewing a request, and no one can pay to remove, hide or bury a report.

Send us:

  1. The building page link, and which report or photo (the date and a short quote help).
  2. Which guideline you think it breaks. For example, it's fake or a duplicate, posted by an insider or competitor, names a person, includes personal information, is harassing or discriminatory, or is off-topic.
  3. Why, with any supporting facts. You don't need to, and shouldn't, try to identify the renter or send us tenant information.
  4. Your name, your role (owner, manager, staff) and how to reach you.

What we do and don't do:

  • We check the report against these guidelines. We may hide a report or remove a photo that breaks them. Otherwise it stays up.
  • We don't decide who's right about disputed facts or experiences. We can't investigate what happened in a lease. A report you disagree with, or a negative opinion, isn't a reason to remove it.
  • We can't contact the renter. Reports are filed without accounts, so we have no way to ask the renter to change, explain or defend a report.
  • Managers whose authority we've checked can post one free public "Response from management" under a report. See our Management Account Terms. Responses don't change scores or which reports appear, and they aren't a way to dispute a report.
  • We aim to reply within about 10 business days. Complex requests may take longer. We don't promise any particular outcome.
  • We won't tell you who wrote a report unless the law requires it (for example, a valid subpoena or court order). We store very little that could identify a renter. See our Privacy Policy.
  • Court orders: if a U.S. court has found that a specific report is defamatory or unlawful, send us a copy of the order that identifies the report. We'll remove it. We're not a party to disputes between renters and landlords, and a demand letter or threat of a lawsuit isn't a court order.

Please don't pressure, threaten or offer anything to a renter to change or remove a report. Federal law (the Consumer Review Fairness Act) generally bars lease terms that stop or punish honest reviews, and the FTC's rules prohibit using threats or intimidation to get reviews removed.

Wrong company on a building? Email us the building link and the correct manager. We'll review it and may correct the match.

Copyright complaints (for example, a photo you own) follow the separate process in our Terms.

For renters: removing your own report

Want your report removed? Email legal@theunitfile.com with "Remove my report" in the subject. Tell us the building and enough about the report (like when you filed it and what it said) for us to find it. We don't edit reports, so we can't change the wording for you. We can remove it, and you can file a new one. See our Privacy Policy for more on your rights.

Contact

legal@theunitfile.com
The Unit File LLC