Contractor dispute

Unfinished work, a defective job: the letter that has to exist before anything else does

Construction disputes are unusual: in many states you cannot simply sue. Statutes commonly require the homeowner to give the contractor written notice of the defect and a real opportunity to repair it before a claim can proceed, and most contracts add their own notice clause on top. That makes this letter less of a threat and more of a procedural step you have to take correctly, at an address you can prove it reached.

Read your contract’s notice clause first, then your state’s

Two things usually govern how this letter has to be sent, and both are easy to get wrong.

• Your contract. Most construction agreements name an address for notices and a method — often “by certified mail, return receipt requested”, sometimes with a fixed number of days. A notice sent by email when the contract says certified mail may not count at all.
• Your state. Many states have a right-to-cure or notice-and-opportunity-to-repair statute for construction defects, requiring written notice with a description of the defect and a period for the contractor to inspect and offer to fix it before a claim is filed. The number of days and the required contents differ by state, and missing the step can delay or sink the claim.

Look both up before you write. When the amount is significant, have a lawyer read the letter — a defect notice is a procedural document with consequences, not a complaint email.

What the letter must contain

1. The parties and the contract. Your name, the contractor’s legal name and licence number, the property address, the contract date and number.
2. What was agreed, and what was paid. The scope, the contract price, every payment with its date.
3. The defect or the unfinished work, item by item. Specific and physical: “the east elevation flashing was not installed”, not “poor workmanship”. Photographs, dated, for each item.
4. What you want, and by when. Completion, repair, or a refund of a named amount. A calendar date. Where your state requires an opportunity to inspect, say plainly that you are offering it and give a window.
5. What happens otherwise. A complaint to the state licensing board, a claim against the licence bond, arbitration if the contract requires it, or a suit. Only what you will do.

Sample contractor demand letter

Why certified, specifically

Because the statute and the contract usually say so, and because the date matters. A right-to-cure period starts when the notice is given, and the argument in these cases is almost always about whether notice was given at all and on what day. Certified Mail creates a mailing date recorded by the Postal Service and, with the electronic return receipt, the signature of whoever accepted it. Keep the exact letter you sent with that record: proving that a letter arrived is not the same as proving this letter arrived, and the second is what a defect notice needs.

Send it to the contractor’s legal entity — the name on the licence and the contract, not a trading name — at the address the contract names for notices, and to the registered agent if the contract is silent.

What you end up holding

• The exact letter that was approved, kept unchanged, with the fingerprint that shows it is the same file.
• The recipient address as it was printed, after the postal check.
• The mailing record: the service that was bought, when the letter was handed over to be printed and mailed, and the reference the printer gave it.
• The sentence you authorized, and the time you authorized it.

You are buying USPS Certified Mail, so the Postal Service keeps its own delivery record. Piloxa asks the printing partner for that history on its own, without anyone pressing anything, and adds each scan to your record as it is reported, naming where it came from. If you chose the return receipt, the signature of whoever accepted the letter is recorded the same way once USPS releases it. Where nothing has come back, the record says “no record yet” rather than guessing. The sample record shows every state, including the incomplete ones.

Certified Mail proves that something was delivered. It does not prove what was inside. Keeping the approved letter beside the mailing record is what closes that gap, and it is the whole reason this exists. See a filled-in record.

Common questions

Do I have to give the contractor a chance to fix it?

In many states, yes. Right-to-cure and notice-and-opportunity-to-repair statutes commonly require written notice describing the defect and a period for the contractor to inspect and offer a repair before a claim can proceed, and most contracts add a notice clause of their own. The requirements differ by state; check yours before you write.

Can I send it by email instead?

Only if your contract and your state allow it. Construction contracts frequently specify certified mail with return receipt for notices, and a notice sent the wrong way may not count. When the contract says certified, send it certified.

How specific do the defects have to be?

Physical and located: what is wrong, where it is, when you saw it, with a dated photograph for each item. “Poor workmanship” gives the contractor nothing to inspect and gives a court nothing to measure.

What if they are unlicensed or have vanished?

The letter still goes to the legal entity at its registered address, and the licensing board complaint and any bond claim usually need a copy of it. A certified letter that comes back unclaimed is still evidence: the tracking record shows the attempt.

What does it cost to send?

$13.18 all in for a one-page letter by USPS Certified Mail, or $16.17 all in with the electronic return receipt. Printing, envelope and postage are included, and a longer document with photographs costs a little more per sheet.

Should a lawyer read it first?

When the amount is significant or the contract has an arbitration clause, yes. A defect notice is a procedural step with deadlines attached, and getting it wrong is expensive in a way that a lawyer’s hour is not.

Primary sources

• USPS Postal Explorer: what Certified Mail documents

Right-to-cure requirements are set by state statute and by your own contract, and both differ widely. Checked against no single national rule, because there is not one — read your state’s statute and your contract. Postal references last reviewed September 18, 2026.

Other letters people send certified

• Demand letters generally
• Refund demands
• Notice of intent to sue
• Denied insurance claims
• Cease and desist
• Send a certified letter