### Documenting Problems: Building Your Case
Comprehensive documentation of contractor problems provides crucial evidence for termination proceedings, potential legal action, and insurance claims while protecting your interests throughout the termination process. Proper documentation often determines the difference between successful resolution and expensive litigation.
Photographic evidence should document all work quality issues, safety violations, property damage, incomplete work, and any other visual problems that demonstrate contractor deficiencies. Take photos regularly throughout the project to establish timelines and show problem progression. Include date stamps on photos and maintain organized files that clearly identify what each image shows.
Written communication records including all emails, text messages, letters, and notes from phone conversations with contractors provide evidence of promises made, excuses offered, and responses to problem reports. Save all written communications and create written summaries of verbal conversations immediately after they occur.
Timeline documentation should track all project milestones, deadline commitments, actual completion dates, and delays with explanations provided by contractors. Maintaining detailed timelines helps demonstrate patterns of poor performance and establishes chronologies for legal proceedings.
Quality control checklists that document specific work deficiencies, code violations, specification deviations, and other quality problems provide objective evidence of contractor performance issues. Professional quality checklists help demonstrate that problems are substantive rather than subjective preferences.
Financial records including all payments made, invoices received, change orders requested, and additional costs incurred due to contractor problems. Complete financial documentation helps establish damages and prevents contractors from making false claims about payment status.
Expert opinions from other contractors, inspectors, or industry professionals who can verify work quality problems, code violations, or other technical issues. Professional opinions provide credible evidence that problems are genuine rather than unreasonable homeowner expectations.
Witness statements from neighbors, delivery personnel, subcontractors, or others who observed contractor behavior, work quality, or professional problems. Witness statements provide independent verification of problem patterns and contractor conduct.
Contract compliance tracking that documents all contract violations, including missed deadlines, specification deviations, unauthorized work, and failure to obtain required permits. Systematic contract compliance documentation helps establish clear grounds for termination.
Safety violation records including photographs of unsafe conditions, documentation of OSHA violations, and records of safety concerns raised with contractors. Safety documentation provides strong grounds for immediate termination and helps protect against liability claims.
Correspondence logs that track all communication attempts, response times, and contractor availability patterns. These logs help demonstrate communication breakdown and contractor non-responsiveness to legitimate concerns.