Anyone have experience with a former resident posting negative reviews on google to get what they want?

Anyone have experience with a former resident posting negative reviews on google to get what they want (disputing charges on FAS)? Not only did this person give a us 1 star review but they also got their 10 friends/relatives to also give us 1 star reviews today. We went from a 4 star review property down to a 2 star all in one day.
Also note, this former resident is also in our industry and knows what he is doing. He had posted a 5 star review a few months ago.
Thoughts? Basically slander and blackmail...

That’s illegal, so I’d contact your attorney and threaten legal action.

Absolutely is. You can also flag it.
I had a resident who made false accusations against ME and I truly considered getting an attorney. He risked my reputation, jeopardized my character and my career all because he thought he was special and didn't want to follow the community rules and policies.

I would also contact the platform and inform them of the situation and see if you can have the reviews removed

we have tried that already but since 8 out of the 10 just gave us a 1 star and no comments Google won’t remove

Ask 10 good residents to give you a 5 star review. Once they do, send a nice gift basket. Or, ask 10 people you know to do reviews.

Unfortunately, Google is not great in the removal department, when warranted. We have a resident at one asset that has created 6 (I think, I've started to lose count) fake accounts on Google (some mirroring other resident names, one in the name of George Floyd (how sick do you have to be)) to write bad reviews. They've all been flagged and none removed. Yelp, on the other hand, removed or dropped to "not recommended" all but 1 or 2 of the 15-16 fake account reviews the same person posted there.
I've seen another say this, but on the reviews we are 100% positive he's written (it was easy in the beginning but he's gotten more clever since then), if not duplicating a resident's name, we do say that there's no resident by that name in the building and call him out for what he's doing. On the ones where he's used a resident's name, we've reached out to the residents (which we do for any negative review) and found out that it's not them so we share that in the response.

I would respond, kindly, and say something to the affect that you don’t have a record they were a resident at your community, but if they wanted to call you directly you would be happy to address their needs.

I’ve had the same problem. Google won’t take any of them down because it’s not against their rules.
Maybe get your attorney to send a cease and desist.

My friends a veterinarian and actually sued someone for slander that did this. He won and the review was taken down.

If they're in the industry, I'd share it with their employer.

You and ten friends should go leave one stars at that persons property.
Kidding.
Maybe.

I would ask your best residents to go on and post positive reviews to show that the bad reviews were exactly what they are. Someone being hateful and lying. It happened to me. The more posts you can get on there, the further down the bad reviews will go. People dont read every review. They read only the first few.

I had a woman who wasn’t even a resident leave a bad review because I wouldn’t let her rent the clubhouse for a party

For the fake reviews, our company just posts, we have no record of you living here...

Had a former employee do this & we had our lawyer send cease & desist letters to all involved. The reviews were removed

Go respond to them and say, "Jane Doe, I wanted to look up your file so we could address your review, but I don't see you in our system, past or present. Are you sure that your review is for the correct property?"

You might report the relatives/friends to Google. It’s a violation of the terms for them to review you without experiencing the product/service.

I had residents like that. Most of them were good residents until they got their bill for charges upon move out. You might want to call corporate and company lawyer. His actions are unacceptable!

We've had smear attempts where they gathered their friends also. So yes, in theory there isn't a ton besides responding in a manner that makes it clear you're being bullied online. Twice now we've had our lawyer write a letter - that worked.

Thank you! We contacted our lawyer today to write a letter!

I also had this happen with someone we evicted for non payment. I responded that I take all valid complaints very seriously. Unfortunately, your complaint has nothing to do with service as you were removed by court order. I continue to stand by our exceptional customer service as I am sure our current residents do.

Report them to see if they can be removed, since they personally didn’t experience the business.
In the meantime, respond to all reviews with the same response you would compile for anyone else.

I had this happen. I reported to Yelp that it was false and the review was malicious. In some cases they can remove but they don’t always do that

I always establish amazing relationships with my residents so when we get a negative, I’ll have a bunch of them give me amazing reviews - and I will do the same in return for them / their place of business and mention them. It’s a win win

I respond on the reviews with the truth. I had a tenant same issue, write a bad review then text me saying he loved the property etc etc and if I gave him his whole deposit back he would take the review down. I copy and pasted his text as the response. Google is so unfair because they will never take those fake reviews down.

Google is absolutely ridiculous with their policies on reviews. I have a current resident who has been numerous negative reviews and is now making false accounts to continue the negative reviews. I wish prospect's would look at the person's profile to see that that person has 1 contributions and gets a negative review which obviously means this is a fabricated review.

Yes! Which is why I hate the push for reviews. Our residents only go on Google or Yelp to get what they want and it’s ridiculous.