Ask around at any smoko and you'll hear a version of the same story. A tiler gets a call two weeks after a bathroom job: there's a chip in the vanity, and the owner reckons it happened while the tiler was there. A sparky gets blamed for a scuff on a freshly painted wall he never touched. A flooring guy cops it for a scratch on a kitchen bench that was there the day he walked in.
Most of the time the damage was already there. The client either didn't notice it before, or noticed it and saw a chance to get it fixed on someone else's dime. Either way, you're the last person who worked in that room, so you're the easy target.
Here's the uncomfortable bit. When it's your word against theirs, you often lose. Not because you're wrong, but because you can't prove you're right.
Why tradies wear the cost so often
It comes down to who has to prove what. The client says you caused damage. You say you didn't. Without a record of how the site looked before you started, there's no way to settle it cleanly. So one of three things usually happens, and none of them are good for you.
You pay to make it go away, because a $300 repair is cheaper than a bad review or an argument that drags on. Or you refuse, the client withholds the rest of your invoice, and now you're out far more than the repair was worth. Or it escalates to your insurer or a tribunal, you spend hours on it, and the outcome is still a coin toss.
The galling part is that a 5-minute job at the start would have killed the whole thing. A few dated photos of that vanity, that wall, that bench, before you touched anything. That's all it takes to flip "your word against theirs" into "here's the proof."
The three moments where it goes wrong
If you look at how these disputes play out, the tradie loses ground at three predictable points.
1. You never recorded the starting condition
This is the big one. No photos from before you started means there's nothing to compare against. The client's version becomes the only version on record. Even if you're certain the chip was there, certainty isn't evidence.
2. Your photos have no date or location attached
Plenty of tradies do snap a few shots, then dig them out later when a complaint lands. The problem is a photo on its own doesn't prove when it was taken. A client pushing a claim can argue you took it afterwards to cover yourself. Phone photos do carry hidden date data, but most people can't access it and it's easy to dispute.
3. The client never signed off on anything
A photo you took yourself is useful. A photo the client looked at and agreed to before work started is much harder to argue with. When the owner has signed to say "yes, that's how it looked when you arrived," there's almost nothing left to fight about.
What actually stops it
The fix isn't complicated, and it isn't more paperwork. It's one habit done the same way every job: record the condition of the site before your tools come out, with the date, the location, and ideally the client's sign-off attached.
Do that and the whole dynamic changes. The rare bad-faith client backs off the moment you mention you've got a signed condition report. The honest client who genuinely thought you did it sees the before photo and realises the damage was already there. Either way, you're not paying for something you didn't do.
The tradies who build this into their routine say the same thing: it pays for itself the first time a claim comes in and dies on the spot.
Dated, located photos the client has signed off on
Records the site before you start, ties the photos to a time and place, and gets the owner's acknowledgement on the record. This is the version that ends disputes before they start.
Photos in your camera roll, no sign-off
Useful as a memory jog and they do hold hidden date data. But without the client agreeing to them up front, a determined claimant can still argue about when and why you took them.
"I remember it being like that"
Your memory carries no weight in a formal dispute. Insurers and tribunals work off records made at the time, not recollections made after the argument started.
This isn't about distrusting clients
Most clients are fine. You'll do hundreds of jobs and never have a problem. But it only takes one claim to wipe out the profit on a job, or several jobs, and you don't get to pick which client tries it on.
Recording the starting condition isn't an accusation. It's the same reason a hire car company walks around the car with you before you drive off. It protects both sides, and it means nobody's arguing from memory later.
Stop paying for damage you didn't cause
TradieCheck records the site before you start, with date, GPS, and a client signature. When a claim lands, your proof is already there.
Try free for 14 days →