This page accompanies the pricing page. Together they describe how CityVero decides who gets listed and what listing costs.
Throughout CityVero, the word verified does work. The homepage promises “your community, verified.” The directory shows vendors marked verified. The pricing page promises honest verification. Without a page that explains what verification actually means, verified is marketing language.
This is that page. The standards below are real and applied to every vendor application. They are also imperfect: verification is judgment, not a formula. Where the lines get fuzzy, that gets said. If you are a vendor evaluating whether to apply, this is what the process looks like. If you are a resident wondering why a particular business is or is not on the platform, this is the standard to hold the platform to.
Three things, in this order, for every vendor application.
The business is real, operates where it says it does, and provides the services it claims. Confirmation covers physical address (or service area for mobile and remote businesses), business registration, and active operation. A business that exists only on a website with no verifiable presence does not pass.
For categories where licensing, insurance, or certification is required, those credentials must be current and in good standing. Categories where credentials are mandatory:
For categories where licensing is not required by state, industry-recognized certification or trade-association membership counts in favor of the application but is not required.
The business meets basic professional standards. A working contact channel. Responsive communication. No unresolved complaints with the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs or analogous regulatory body. No active litigation that materially affects ability to deliver services. Star averages from review platforms do not count; they are gameable. Substantive complaints that surface during verification do get investigated.
Every application receives founder-level review before a verification decision. The review team is small enough that no application gets rubber-stamped, and intentional enough to say no when standards are not met.
The limits of verification, stated plainly.
Whether a vendor is the best in their category is not part of the check. Verification confirms legitimacy and standards. Judgments about quality between verified vendors belong to the resident.
Ongoing quality is not audited continuously. Verification at listing is verification at the moment of listing. Standards that slip get caught by residents reporting changes. Re-verification follows a substantive complaint.
Review platform star averages do not determine pass or fail. The existence check and the credentials check are the gates. What residents see on the other side of those gates is the CityVero Score, described in the next section.
Outcomes are not certified. A verified contractor is not guaranteed to deliver work the resident will love. A verified therapist is not guaranteed to be the right fit for the resident’s situation. Verification means the vendor is who they say they are and meets baseline standards. The relationship is between resident and vendor.
Every vendor profile in a competitively verified category receives a CityVero Score from 0 to 100. The Score is not a star rating borrowed from a third-party platform. It is a published, multi-factor signal computed from the following inputs:
The credential listed for the vendor’s category is confirmed against the regulating body. High-confidence match: 25 points. Medium confidence (license found, one field ambiguous): 18 points. Low confidence (possible match, manual review required): 10 points. No match: 0 points.
The tier assigned to the listing by the verification team. Founding and Premier tier: 20 points. Verified tier: 18 points. Claimed tier: 10 points. Unclaimed: 0 points.
Computed as the Google star rating multiplied by the log base-10 of the review count, scaled to a 20-point maximum. Requires a minimum of 5 reviews to score. A 5-star rating with 1,000 reviews reaches the maximum. A 4-star rating with 100 reviews scores approximately 13 points. The formula rewards both quality and sustained review volume.
10 or more years: 10 points. 5 to 9 years: 8 points. 2 to 4 years: 5 points. 1 year: 2 points. Under 1 year: 0 points.
A confirmed physical address or defined service area is on record: 5 points.
A working 10-digit phone number is confirmed: 5 points.
A valid, reachable website URL is confirmed: 5 points.
A Google review posted within the last 12 months: 5 points. A review within the last 24 months: 2 points. No review within 24 months: 0 points.
The listing has been claimed and is actively managed by the business owner: 5 points when tier is Claimed, Verified, Founding, or Premier.
Total: 100 points. Scores are recomputed nightly. The full point breakdown for each vendor is stored in the verification record.
Raw Google reviews appear on every vendor profile alongside the Score: full text, reviewer names, and dates. Star averages do not appear. The Score and raw reviews together are the signal available to the resident.
Listings in the three reserved categories described below are not assigned a CityVero Score. They appear in click-out form with full ownership disclosure.
A specific question that comes up: why are some sport programs free to list, and others priced like any other business?
The line is between programs that exist to provide a sport to the community and businesses whose product is sport instruction.
The test is the business model, not the activity. A community soccer league with volunteer coaches and a $75 registration fee is free. A soccer academy with paid coaches charging $4,000 a season is a business and listed in the directory like any other business.
Edge cases exist. A volunteer-run league that pays a single part-time administrator is not disqualified from the free tier. A studio that runs a low-cost recreational program alongside its paid private instruction can apply for both: free Sports Hub listing for the recreational program, paid directory listing for the studio. Edge cases are handled individually.
CityVero is operated by CityVero LLC. Three categories on the platform are not subject to CityVero verification because the founder of CityVero LLC operates the only listed business in each. These categories are reserved for full ownership disclosure and excluded from competitive verification.
Insurance, employee benefits, and group health: Kandelaki Solutions LLC. CityVero LLC and Kandelaki Solutions LLC share common ownership and are commonly controlled. Both entities are separate New Jersey limited liability companies operating under separate regulatory frameworks. Kandelaki Solutions is licensed by the New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance.
Securities, investment advisory, and wealth management: Kandelaki Financial Group. CityVero LLC and Kandelaki Financial Group share common ownership. CityVero LLC operates an editorial information platform. It does not offer or sell securities, investment advisory services, or insurance products. All financial services are provided by Kandelaki Financial Group under its own regulatory framework. Securities offered through MML Investors Services, LLC. The Kandelaki Financial Group profile contains the full registered representative disclosure.
Mental health services: Positive Reset Manalapan. Positive Reset Manalapan is independently operated by its owner under a separate professional license. CityVero LLC and Positive Reset Manalapan are separate entities; Positive Reset Manalapan is a related-party institutional partner. CityVero does not collect or transmit Protected Health Information. All clinical contact with Positive Reset Manalapan is patient-initiated through Positive Reset Manalapan directly.
These three partnerships are exclusive on CityVero. Competitive vendors are not listed in these three categories. All other categories on the directory are competitive and open to qualified vendors. Listings in the three reserved categories are not assigned a CityVero Score and are not subject to the verification cycle described on this page. Their disclosures are reviewed on the same cadence applied to CityVero’s own ownership disclosures, separate from vendor verification.
The pricing page lists all three reserved categories with entity names and regulatory disclosures.
Rejected vendor names are not published. The decision is explained in writing to the applicant, including what triggered it. Rejections fall into three categories:
The most common reason. Often resolvable when the vendor provides documentation that was not initially submitted.
Pending license suspensions, state action, unresolved consumer protection complaints. These are case-by-case; serious open issues typically mean rejection.
Some businesses apply to categories that do not match what they actually do. The applicant is notified and the correct category is suggested.
Rejected vendors can reapply when the issue is resolved. No permanent rejection list exists. Verification is a snapshot, not a sentence.
Residents and competing vendors are the primary signal when something has changed: a license has lapsed, a business has closed, ownership has changed, a serious complaint has surfaced. Reports trigger re-verification. Confirmed issues result in suspension of the listing pending resolution; unresolved issues result in delisting.
A continuous audit on every vendor is not run between renewals. Re-verification follows the renewal cadence: annually for the Local tier, every three years for the Standard tier. Founding Charter members are not formally re-verified at intervals because there is no renewal, but the listing is not exempt from delisting if the business genuinely fails verification later. Listings in the three reserved categories are not subject to the verification cycle described on this page; their disclosures are reviewed on the same cadence applied to CityVero’s own ownership disclosures, separate from vendor verification.
Email [email protected] with the vendor name and what you observed. Complaints are not published publicly and are not used to score vendors. Substantive concerns are investigated and the vendor is contacted directly. If the issue is resolved, the listing stays. If it is not, the listing comes down.
Hearsay and competitive sniping do not trigger investigations. A complaint substantive enough to investigate has specifics: a date, a service description, an outcome. The vendor is told what was reported, without identifying the source, and given a chance to respond before any action is taken.
Questions about how this applies to your specific business? Email [email protected].
