I’ve seen this happen a few times now and always seem to be unable to edit in a way I feel is suitable for the situation so I’m looking for some help and discussion from my fellow Local Guides please.
Scenario:
A business closes at a specific location then shortly after a new business selling the same, or similar, things opens there. Rather than create their own Google My Business entry they change the name of the old one and instantly acquire an established profile with reviews, images etc that don’t actually apply to them.
They then change other information in the listing to match the changes and from an outsider point of view it looks like they have been there longer and received a lot of positive reviews.
Thoughts:
I personally think that when a business closes the listing should be closed and a new one created at the same location so that the service of that specific business is reflected. That seems sensible right?
Specific example:
A local company, Chixy Dixy, was a takeaway selling fried chicken. It closed and the shop was empty for some time. Recently a new company, Chicken Cottage, have moved in, added new equipment and put up new signs. As you can probably guess from the name they sell fried chicken.
Different business run by different people, they just happen to sell similar things from the same place as the old business. Like if an Adidas shop opened where a Nike one used to be I guess.
This is the Google Maps listing for “Chixy Dixy”:
https://goo.gl/maps/SdZPCPHcbubV5GvC7
As you can see someone has renamed it, and it’s been approved, as “Chicken Cottage Morley” (It should be “Chicken Cottage”, the address shows it’s in the town of Morley) - at the time of writing all the images, reviews, website, telephone number etc are incorrect and are for the old Chixy Dixy.
Issue:
When Chicken Cottage moved in I tried to close the old entry for Chixy Dixy that had been renamed and create a new one for Chicken Cottage, this was declined. I hadn’t realised it had actually closed as the COVID-19 situation was with us and I thought it might just be a temporary thing.
I’ve tried to rename the Chicken Cottage Morley one back to Chixy Dixy with a view to marking it as closed, declined.
I can’t create a second Chicken Cottage entry as it would be a duplicate.
I don’t agree with it having the name of the town in the name of the business, I tried to edit this, declined.
Essentially Google don’t seem to trust me with this entry for some reason despite me trying to do, what I consider to be the right thing 
Next Steps:
Can anyone here suggest how they would handle this sort of thing if it happened in their area?
Am I right to believe an old business shouldn’t just be renamed like this?
How do I go about getting the old entry removed and creating a new one if no Local Guides in my area are checking the map and helping to confirm changes?
Evidence:
For clarification of what I’m saying above here’s Chixy Dixy from days gone by:
And here is an image someone took this month when the new company was putting their signs up:
And their new website: https://chickencottagemorley.com/
Exactly the same thing happened with an Indian restaurant and no matter what I did I couldn’t change what I considered necessary, they opened for business with a 4.9 rating despite having never traded in the town before and with all new menus, staff and equipment. This kind of thing makes me feel uneasy and puts into question how much we can trust the information provided from Google.
What are your thoughts? I’m keen to hear where others stand on this sort of thing and to see if anything can be done to help me with this specific entry before the business in question actually reopens.
