You hired someone for work on your home, paid them, and the work is unfinished, defective, or never started.
Each step builds on the one before it, so order matters. You do not have to finish in one sitting — the assistant can pick up where you left off if you tell it what you already did. Expect several hours across several days, not minutes.
Tells the assistant how to behave: no invented facts, no guessing, quote things exactly.
You are helping me build a contractor-dispute case file. Non-negotiable: 1. Never state a fact without a document, payment record, dated photo, or logged message behind it. Quote their words verbatim or not at all. 2. Every amount and day-count in any output is computed from the ledger with an assertion that fails on mismatch. 3. My own bad facts go IN the counsel-only file, plainly listed — never silently dropped, never in anything we send out. 4. Where my own records conflict, list the conflict; do not reconcile it away. 5. State facts; no legal argument and no adjectives in anything sent out. 6. Check whether my state has a right-to-cure or home-repair statute before any demand or filing is drafted, and tell me what it requires. 7. Keep an append-only decisions file of every ruling I make.
Many home-repair contracts are missing terms the law requires.
Read every contract document in my dispute — quotes, proposals, signed pages, change orders, and any text/email where scope or price was agreed. Produce the anatomy: 1. WHAT IT SAYS: parties as written; total price and how it breaks down by scope; payment schedule and triggers, quoted verbatim; scope description, verbatim; anything about permits, insurance, warranties. 2. WHAT IT LACKS, as a checklist with implications: completion date or schedule? change-order process? termination clause? arbitration clause? attorney-fee provision? lien-waiver terms? license number on the document? For each absence, one sentence on what standard fills the gap (e.g. no completion date → performance within a reasonable time, evidenced by their own promises — see prompt 03). 3. FORMATION FACTS: who signed what and when; whether any statutory writings my state requires for home-repair work (written contract thresholds, consumer-rights disclosures) were provided — list what was never given. 4. CHANGE ORDERS: each one — scope, amount, whether written or inferred from messages, and whether the underlying need was caused by their own defective work (those are contested items, not agreed debts; mark them). Rules: quote, don't paraphrase; page-cite everything; where a term exists only in a text message, that message is the exhibit.
The gaps list drives strategy: no arbitration clause keeps small claims open; no fee clause means every escalation costs you your own fees — factor that into the demand number.
Money out versus work actually completed, line by line.
From primary records only — bank statements, Zelle/Venmo confirmations, check images, receipts — build the payment ledger: date, amount, method, reference, payee as shown, and the scope item it paid for (from the contract anatomy and surrounding messages). Then compute the exposure table, every number asserted: - Paid, work completed and sound. - Paid, work performed but corrected/redone by third parties — with my corrective costs beside it (their invoices are exhibits). - Paid, work never begun — the deposit-to-unstarted-scope number, isolated and exact. This is usually the demand. - Claimed owed by them, unverified — list their asserted balances separately; we neither adopt nor ignore them. Flag every conflict inside my own records (a remembered cash payment with no record, a transfer whose purpose is unclear) in a CONFLICTS section — listed, not reconciled.
The cleanest claim is money paid for scope never begun. Keep it unmixed with defect claims in every document we produce; blended demands are easier to refuse.
Each date they gave you, and what happened on that date.
Sweep every text thread and email with the contractor. Extract every statement
about schedule — start dates, durations, "next week," "a few weeks out," crew and
subcontractor availability — each QUOTED VERBATIM with who said it and the
date. Alongside, place what actually happened on the ground (from photos,
visits, and the work record).
Build the promise ledger: date of promise → the promise, verbatim → the date
it implied → what happened by that date → the next promise. Compute the
pattern facts: how many distinct start commitments; the span from first
promise to today; instances where the same interval was re-promised after it
lapsed (the same "three weeks" promised on <date> and again <N> days later).
Same sweep for MY side: every deadline I set in writing and what I said would
follow; their responses to each, verbatim.
Rules: no characterization ("stringing us along") anywhere — the ledger's
juxtaposition does that work by existing.This artifact usually decides the dispute's story: performance vs. a pattern of resetting promises. It's also the exhibit a small-claims judge reads fastest.
Photos and their own words about the state of the job.
Assemble the physical-work evidence: 1. PHOTO/VIDEO CATALOG: every dated capture of the work — state before, during, after; defects; site conditions. Same discipline as the sibling repos: date from metadata where possible, one factual sentence describing only what is visible, duplicates marked, honest grading. 2. DEFECT LIST: each claimed defect — what, where, first observed, the capture or report that shows it, and its status (open / corrected by them / corrected by third party at my cost). 3. THIRD-PARTY RECORD: every professional who touched or assessed the work — trade, what they found (their words, from their invoice/report/message), what correction cost. Ask any professional whose findings exist only verbally to put them in writing now. 4. ADVERSE ADMISSIONS: sweep their messages for responses to my defect reports — everything they conceded, offered to redo, or did not dispute when itemized to them. Quote exactly, with dates. An itemized complaint answered by "we can come back and change that" is an exhibit.
If work is ongoing or the site is changing, photograph systematically NOW — wide shots for context, close-ups for defects, one sweep per area — before weather, other trades, or their return crew changes the record.
Permits and inspections are public. They often contradict the story.
Compile the public-records file for my project and contractor: 1. PERMITS: my address's permit history from the city/county portal — permit numbers, scope as written, issue dates, status, and the inspection record: what passed, what failed, what was never called for. Screenshot with dates; note the portal URL and pull date on each capture. 2. WHO PULLED WHAT: which permits were pulled by the contractor vs. by me as owner, and whether performed work matches permitted scope. If any work that required a permit has none, note it factually — and flag it for counsel BEFORE it is used anywhere, since permit gaps can cut both ways. 3. LICENSE & REGISTRATION: the contractor's license/registration status in my state and city, exactly as the registry shows it, with any conditions or disciplinary history. 4. BOND & INSURANCE: any contractor bond on file (bond claims are a real recovery path), and the certificate of insurance if I have one. 5. COMPLAINT HISTORY: license-board or consumer-agency complaint records available publicly or by records request; court dockets in my county for the contractor's business names. Every item: source, pull date, and the capture as an exhibit. State only what each record shows.
Diary a re-pull the week anything is filed — statuses change, and "permit EXPIRED, no inspections passed, as of <date>" must be current when cited.
A factual letter stating what you paid, what you got, and what you want.
Draft the demand letter from the bundle. Requirements: - One page if possible. Facts, dates, and numbers only — every one asserted against the ledger. - Recite the spine in four or five sentences: contract and price; what was paid; the specific scope never begun / the specific defects (whichever this demand addresses); the promise record in one sentence with one verbatim quote at most. - THE DEMAND: the exact number and what it is (e.g. return of the deposit paid toward scope never commenced); the payment method; the deadline (a real date, 7–14 days). - THE RESERVATION: all other claims — defects, corrective costs, financing costs, statutory claims — expressly reserved, not waived, not discussed. - The consequence sentence: absent payment by the deadline, I will pursue available remedies without further notice. No threats beyond that; no adjectives anywhere. - Check my state's right-to-cure / home-repair statute first and tell me if this letter must take a specific statutory form or precede suit by a set period. Also produce the delivery plan: certified mail + email, and the proof-of- delivery record for the bundle (tracking, read receipts).
Calendar the deadline. Silence or a new promise without payment is itself the next entry in the promise ledger — and the trigger for prompt 09.
Two versions — a short one to send, a complete one for a lawyer.
Build BOTH packets from the same bundle, clearly marked: **FULL PACKET — RETAINED COUNSEL ONLY.** Everything: contract anatomy, ledgers with the conflicts section, promise timeline, work record, public records, adverse admissions, all correspondence — plus the counsel-only sections: my own bad facts (statements made to keep the project alive, permit irregularities on any scope, cash payments), settlement-relevant context, and open questions. Filename and every page header carry the counsel-only marking. **FACTUAL PACKET — fit to share.** Contract, payment ledger and exposure table, promise timeline, defect record with third-party reports, public records, the demand letter and any response. No analysis, no bad-facts section, no privileged material, nothing characterized. This is what goes to law-firm intake, the license board, or a small-claims filing. Mechanics: chronology first, exhibits numbered per the shared scheme, every computed number asserted, a one-page cover index on each. Verify no counsel-only content leaks into the factual build — diff the two file lists and show me.
When shopping for counsel, send the FACTUAL packet. The FULL packet exists so that the lawyer you retain learns everything in the first meeting instead of the worst deposition.
Have the assistant argue the contractor's side, then fix what it finds.
Attack my complete package from five perspectives, with specific findings: 1. **The contractor's lawyer.** Every payment my ledger can't trace, every "defect" without a third-party voice, every place I blended agreed debts with contested change orders, and the best paragraph you'd write against me — including anything in MY conduct (missed selections, slow responses, my own written concessions) you'd lead with. 2. **A small-claims judge with 15 minutes.** Can you find the number, the contract, and the promise pattern in one pass? What made you hunt? 3. **A law-firm intake attorney.** Would you take this on contingency or hourly? What's amateur? What's missing that you'd ask for first? 4. **The license-board investigator.** Is there conduct here the board acts on, stated factually — or does this read as a private money dispute? 5. **Another homeowner using this as a template.** What is specific to my case but disguised as method? Consolidate: fixes-now / decisions-for-me / risks-accepted. Apply, queue, record.
Licensing board, bond claim, small claims — what each can actually do.
The demand deadline passed. Lay out my ladder with what each rung needs from the bundle, in order: 1. **License / registration board complaint** — the factual packet's public- records and defect sections; what my board can actually do (discipline, restitution orders in some states, nothing in others — check mine and say which). Decision note for me: this rung can end a small contractor's business; it is leverage AND escalation, and once filed it is not mine to withdraw quietly. 2. **Bond claim** — if a bond exists (prompt 05), the claim process, its deadline, and the packet subset it needs. 3. **Small claims** — my state's ceiling vs. my clean number; venue; filing mechanics; the trial folder: contract, exposure table, promise ledger, photos, third-party invoices, public records — each one page-flagged for a 15-minute hearing. If my number exceeds the ceiling: the waive-down arithmetic vs. regular court with counsel, stated plainly. 4. **Consumer-protection route** — whether my state's UDAP / home-repair act reaches this conduct and what that adds (fee-shifting changes everything — check and cite). For each rung: what it costs, how long it takes, what it forecloses, and what it preserves. I choose; nothing files without my word.
Optional and technical. Rarely needed.
Most contractor disputes resolve on the PDF packets — don't build infrastructure the dispute doesn't need. A password-gated site (the kit in `site/`, shared across the sibling repos) earns its keep when: the record is document-heavy (hundreds of photos, long message threads), multiple audiences need controlled access (your lawyer, a mediator, an adjuster), or you want an access log showing when the other side's counsel actually reviewed the record. --- If warranted: build the case homepage from the bundle per the sibling repos' pattern — abstract, the record in plain language, the exposure table, the promise timeline as a swimlane strip, the photo grid with full-resolution originals one click away, public-records section, and the factual packet as a download. Same rules: every count asserted at build, exhibit numbers matching the PDF, no external requests, credentials per audience, rotate when the matter closes. The FULL packet and anything counsel-only NEVER goes on the site, under any credential.
There is a complete demonstration case file — made up, but the real shape of the result.