Vanessa just posted a question in the comments asking about a pretty wild situation: her property management company is refusing to renew her lease because she gave them a bad online review. So can a landlord actually do that?
First, the disclaimer: I’m not an attorney, and I can’t give you legal advice. I’m a real estate broker and I own a property management company here in Philadelphia — that’s my expertise. For an actual qualified answer, you’d want to talk to a licensed attorney. But I can tell you what I think based on running a property management company in this city for years.
This Sounds Like Retaliation to Me
In Philadelphia, what Vanessa is describing would fall under what’s called retaliation, and landlords are not allowed to do it. A property management company or landlord that pulls something like this is running a huge risk of getting into serious trouble.
Right now, this is a hot, hot topic in Philadelphia. The city has been going out of its way to pass legislation protecting tenants from retaliation — especially when a tenant contacts the city about a property violation or any code issue. And in my opinion, leaving a bad online review for your property management company would likely fall under that same protective umbrella.
Why Landlords Get Themselves in Trouble Here
Look, I get it. Nobody likes a bad review. But the answer is never to punish the tenant. The answer is to fix whatever caused the bad review in the first place, or just accept that you can’t please everyone. When you refuse to renew a lease specifically because a tenant said something negative about you publicly, you’re putting a giant target on your own back.
Philadelphia has been writing some big-ticket penalties into these anti-retaliation laws. We’re not talking about a slap on the wrist anymore. The city is serious about this, and tenants have more protection now than they’ve had in a long time.
What Vanessa (or Anyone in This Situation) Should Do
If I were in this situation, here’s what I’d do:
- Document everything. Save the review, save any communication from the property management company about the non-renewal, and save the timeline showing the review came first and the non-renewal came after.
- Reach out to Philadelphia housing agencies. The Philadelphia Housing Authority is a good start. You can also look into fair housing organizations in the city. Just Google around — there are several agencies that handle tenant complaints.
- Talk to a tenant’s rights attorney. Many will do a free initial consultation. If this really is retaliation, you may have a real case.
- Let the agencies reach out to the landlord. Sometimes just having one of these agencies make a phone call is enough to get the landlord to back off.
A Word to Landlords and Property Owners
If you own rental property in Philadelphia, please don’t do this. I see landlords make emotional decisions all the time, and it almost always backfires. A bad review stings, but the cost of a retaliation claim — between fines, legal fees, and the time you’ll waste — is way worse than whatever that review is doing to your reputation.
The better play is to focus on running a clean operation. Respond to repair requests quickly, communicate clearly with your tenants, and handle disputes professionally. If you’re doing all of that and you still get the occasional bad review, that’s just part of being in business. You can’t please everyone, but you can absolutely make your situation worse by retaliating.
And if a tenant truly is a problem — late payments, lease violations, damage to the property — there are legitimate, documented reasons not to renew. Those are completely different from punishing someone for a Google review.
The Bottom Line
Vanessa, in my unlicensed, non-attorney capacity, this does not sound right to me. Retaliation against a tenant for speaking publicly about a landlord or property management company is hugely frowned upon in Philadelphia, especially right now with the new legislation on the books. I’d definitely take some action on it.
I’m just a humble Philadelphia property management company owner doing my best to answer your rental property investing questions. Good luck with this one, and as always — happy rental property investing.
