• You can review any company listed on HomeStars so long as there has been a financial transaction between the review writer and the company. A financial transaction is defined as a transfer of funds between the homeowner and the company and/or an agreement of work. The review must relate to the repair, improvement, purchase, or construction undertaking, completed by an agreement of work. A financial transaction can also include refunds, partial payments, or disputed payments.
• A company can be reviewed up to 3 times by the same homeowner in a lifetime. Each review must focus on a different project, with at least 6 months between each review.
• All reviews must be submitted with a valid email address and postal code of where the work was completed.
• Any incentive or discount promised in exchange for a review will lead to review removal
• All reviews must be written by past customers who are unrelated and/or unaffiliated with the company. Family members, current or past employees cannot write reviews.
• All reviews for companies should be written using a homeowner account. This includes companies hired to assist with a job at your home or place of work, or sub-contracting companies.
• Anyone writing a review must be over the age of 18.

What to Include in Your Review

Here’s what to include in your review to ensure it’s approved and can help your neighbours hire better.

• All reviews must be a minimum of 30 words long and written in English.
• All reviews must focus on the project completed by the company you had a contractual agreement with.
• All reviews must be original. Do not directly copy and paste a review you wrote on another website to HomeStars.
• Homeowners must edit their original review in order to respond to the company’s response.
• All reviews must be constructive and avoid accusatory and vulgar language and must abide by Canadian Defamation laws.

What Not to Include in Your Review

Remember that the companies you are reviewing are owned and operated by humans. Please be considerate in your feedback even if you had a very negative experience. The goal of your review is to explain your experience and how the project turned out.

• Do not include competing company names or additional company names in the review
• Do not disclose full names or personal, private details of the company’s employees (phone numbers, email address, home address, etc.)
• Accusatory, defamatory, or vulgar language
• All reviews must be non-commercial, meaning they cannot include promotional material or links to other websites

HomeStars Will Only Remove Reviews

• At the request of the homeowner/review writer
• During a company requested investigation
• If written by an unverified homeowner

It is important that Homeowners report any review anomalies, such as discounts offered in exchange for a review or other contractual agreements that may impact the integrity of a review. These anomalies prohibit the review author from leaving their honest and factual experience with a company. If you come across one of these, contact reviewverification@homestars.com

Companies listed on HomeStars have the opportunity to provide a company response for each review that is submitted on their listing. Company responses must adhere to the HomeStars Review Response Guidelines. For information please take a look at the HomeStars Review Response Guidelines. If a company response does not meet the review guidelines listed above, please contact reviewverification@homestars.com.

*HomeStars will not post – or once posted, will remove or redact – any defamatory or accusatory language, profanity, threats, prejudiced comments, hate speech, personal attacks, or other content considered objectionable.

*A company can challenge the validity of any review posted on their profile with regards to whether or not the reviewer is a legitimate customer. A review can be investigated up to 60 days after it has been posted.

For more information review visit our Terms of Service.

HomeStars Review Response Guidelines for Service Professionals

All companies that receive reviews on HomeStars are encouraged to respond to them. Please follow the below guidelines to ensure your response meets our requirements.

1. Responses can not be used to intimidate or threaten a homeowner.
2. All responses must be constructive and avoid accusatory and vulgar language and must abide by Canadian Defamation laws.
3. All responses cannot contain any personal and/or identifiable information of the customer. Examples include, but are not limited to, using full names, name initials, phone numbers, email addresses, home addresses, and private correspondences.
4. a. A response to an anonymous review or where a reviewer uses an alias' cannot include the actual names or other identifiable information of the reviewer.
5. All responses must focus on the project completed with the homeowner you had a contractual agreement with. Do not mention competing company names or additional company names in the response.
6. All responses must be written in English.
7. All responses must be non-commercial, meaning they cannot include promotional material or links to other websites.
8. Anyone responding to a review on behalf of a company must be over the age of 18.
9. HomeStars may redact information in a company response to ensure the content meets the above guidelines.

If a company response does not meet the criteria above, please contact reviewverification@homestars.com.

HomeStars will not post – or once posted, will remove or redact – any defamatory or accusatory language, profanity, threats, prejudiced comments, hate speech, personal attacks, or other content considered objectionable.

A company can challenge the validity of any review posted on their profile with regards to whether or not the reviewer is a legitimate customer. A review can be investigated up to 60 days after it has been posted.