Do photos and WhatsApp messages count as evidence against a claim from my main contractor?
Yes, they can count as evidence against a claim, but you need to check each one's date, context and meaning, and that it is genuine.
Updated: . By Jack Butler-Kettle, Construction Claims Consultant.
The answer
Keep the original files or exports, with the sender, who took each photo, the date and location data stored in the file, and the conversation around each message. Note what each item is meant to show. A message can prove what someone wrote without proving they had authority under the subcontract, or that a notice was sent the way the subcontract requires. A photo can show a condition without proving its cause, how long it lasted or what it cost. Keep the helpful and unhelpful messages together, and link each item to the diary or register. Keep what the record says separate from how you read it later.
Example
Illustrative example. The scenario and figures are invented.
The facts
A mechanical subcontractor's main contractor claims £22,000 from it for late pipework in block C. In a message thread, the main contractor's engineer directed a reroute in the corridor. The subcontractor's answer relies on that thread, its own same-day confirmation, and photos of the corridor taken that week.
What happens
- The exported thread, the messages around it and the photos are filed with their original file data, the drawing revision and the diary entry for each day.
- Each item is recorded with what it is meant to show, and the helpful and unhelpful messages in the thread are kept together.
- The file shows what was said and when. Whether the engineer had authority to direct the reroute, and whether the confirmation went the way the subcontract requires, is checked separately.
The outcome
The answer to the £22,000 claim cites the thread and the photos as a record of what was said and when. It does not treat them as proof of authority or of the effect under the subcontract, which are argued separately.
To have your photographs, messages and handover records kept so they can answer a claim against you, see our Counterclaim Prevention service.