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Nearly 1 in 3 homeowners reports a bad contractor experience — blown budgets, abandoned jobs, shoddy work, or worse. Almost every one of those stories started the same way: the homeowner skipped two or three checks that would have surfaced the problem before any money changed hands. Vetting is not paranoia; it's the single highest-leverage hour you'll spend on your project. Work through the 20 items below before you sign anything. If a contractor balks at any of them, that's the information you came for — and it cost you nothing.
The non-negotiables. Skip these and you have no legal recourse if something goes wrong.
Past behavior predicts future behavior. Anyone good has a paper trail.
The contract is your only enforceable record. If it's not in writing, it doesn't exist.
How they treat you while courting your business is the best version you'll ever get.
If you see any of these, walk away. No exceptions, no matter how good the price.
Don't try to clear all 20 items in one phone call. Use the categories as a sequence. Run the Credentials checks first — license, insurance, identity — because if any of those fail, nothing else matters. A contractor who is not licensed or carries no general liability and workers' comp insurance exposes you to personal liability the day a worker steps on your property. Verify license numbers directly with your state's contractor licensing board (search ‘[your state] contractor license lookup’) and request a Certificate of Insurance emailed from the insurer, not a photo.
Track record is your second filter. A great contractor will hand you three recent references without hesitation, walk you through a photo portfolio of similar projects, and won't be afraid of you reading their Google, Yelp, BBB, and state-complaint history. Patterns matter more than any single bad review — every busy contractor has one unhappy customer. What you're looking for is a recurring complaint: abandoned jobs, change-order surprises, or quality issues that show up in multiple reviews.
The agreement is where most disputes are won or lost. The contract is your only enforceable record, so it should spell out scope, materials (with brands and model numbers), who pulls permits, a payment schedule tied to milestones rather than calendar dates, and the three-day right to cancel that most states require by statute. If your state caps the deposit (many do — California's is 10% or $1,000, whichever is less, for example), the contract should respect that cap.
Communication tells you what working with this person will actually feel like for the next three to six months. How they treat you while courting your business is the best version you'll ever get. Slow responses, missed appointments, hand-waving about the timeline, and inability to explain the change-order process are not quirks — they're previews.
What to do if a contractor fails multiple checks. One failed check might be an honest gap — maybe their insurance renewed last week and they haven't uploaded the new COI yet. Two or more failed checks, especially anything in the Red Flags category, is your cue to walk away. The construction market is large; the cost of moving on to the next bid is almost always lower than the cost of cleaning up after the wrong hire. Don't fall for the sunk-cost feeling of ‘I've already spent two weeks talking to this person.’
What your rights are if something goes wrong after you hire. If work is defective, abandoned, or materially different from the contract, your remedies stack: (1) document everything in writing — photos, dated messages, and a written demand to cure; (2) file a complaint with your state contractor licensing board, which can mediate, fine, or suspend the license; (3) file a mechanic's lien release dispute if subs claim you owe money the GC was supposed to pay; (4) make a claim against the contractor's surety bond if your state requires one; (5) sue in small claims court for amounts under the state's cap, or hire a construction-law attorney for larger losses. Most states also let you recover attorney's fees if the contractor violated home-improvement statutes — which is why having a written, statute-compliant contract in the first place is so valuable.
Get free AI contract review on BuildTrust — we check your contract against your state's home-improvement statutes and flag what's missing in plain English.
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