The Legal Column: Document the Job and Get Paid

Often the most difficult task facing a contractor when collecting payment of a bill in dispute is documenting the basis for the bill. You may know you did the work, but if you can’t provide a paper trail proving to the owner, arbitrator, or court that you incurred the expenses, the owner may get the benefit of the doubt, which means you don’t collect. This is particularly true when there is a dispute about who supplied a piece of material or performed the work — when an owner claims he paid the plumber for the fixtures you supplied, for instance, or that he, not your carpenter, installed the bookshelves in the basement. Such disputes often lead to the filing of