What HomeStars Will Actually Remove — and What It Won’t
A genuine negative review from a real customer stays up, even if it’s harsh. Here’s what does qualify for removal, and how the investigation process actually works.
Yes, in specific cases — HomeStars removes reviews that violate its Review Guidelines: reviews where no work started and no deposit was paid, reviews with false, inaccurate, or misleading statements, reviews that disclose personal information about the pro, their employees, or third parties, reviews with offensive, vulgar, racist, or hateful language, and reviews that were incentivized or paid for. HomeStars is explicit that it does not investigate reviews to dispute factual details — a genuine but unflattering account of a real job stays up, and the contractor is expected to respond publicly instead.
HomeStars’ explanation of how Star Score worksWhich reviews can be removed?
- No work had started and no deposit was paid for the job the review describes
- The review contains false, inaccurate, or misleading statements
- The review discloses personal information — names, addresses, or contact details — about the pro, their employees, or third parties
- The review contains offensive, vulgar, obscene, racist, hateful, or derogatory language
- The reviewer was paid or otherwise incentivized to post the review
- The review otherwise violates HomeStars’ customer user agreement or applicable law
If a flag or dispute is denied
HomeStars states that it investigates objections submitted through the Pro Dashboard or its contact form, and removes a review only where it finds an actual violation of the customer user agreement or Review Guidelines. It does not publish a separate escalation path beyond submitting supporting detail with the original investigation request.
Improve your rating instead
For reviews that don't qualify for removal, a professional response and a consistent flow of new reviews does more than chasing a removal that isn't coming.
Frequently asked questions
Log into your Pro Dashboard, open Reviews, select the review in question, and submit a request for investigation with a description of why it violates HomeStars’ Review Guidelines.
HomeStars states it does not investigate reviews to dispute details — if a homeowner says a job took three weeks when it actually took two, that isn’t investigation-eligible. HomeStars’ guidance is to respond publicly to the review with the correct facts instead.
Yes — HomeStars’ investigation-request option isn’t available on reviews older than one year, or on reviews that have already been investigated once.
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