Editorial Policy

Our promise to readers

We write for homeowners first. Our job is to help you make better decisions about your home, not to steer you toward any business.

Accuracy

• Every article lists the dates it was published and, when it changes meaningfully, updated.
• Where we rely on outside information, we cite sources, preferring official and primary sources (for example, state licensing records and building departments).
• Safety-critical technical advice (electrical, gas, structural, roofing) is reviewed by a qualified person before publication, and the article names who reviewed it.
• Articles show when their facts were last verified. We schedule refreshes so older guides don’t quietly go stale.

Homeowner Warning Center standards

Stories that criticise a named company follow a stricter process:

1. We obtain documents (scope of work, itemized quote, invoice, correspondence, photos) with the homeowner’s informed permission, and record where they came from.
2. We separate what the homeowner reported, what the contractor documented, what an independent qualified reviewer observed, and our own analysis.
3. We check licensing and public records with official sources and date-stamp what we found. A failed search is not treated as proof that a license doesn’t exist.
4. We give the company a genuine opportunity to respond, and we report the date, how we contacted them, and their response or lack of one.
5. We remove names and identifying details of homeowners unless they explicitly agree and it’s truly necessary, with extra care for older and vulnerable people.
6. The publisher personally approves every story that names a company critically. Nothing of this kind is ever published automatically.

We never fabricate complaints, organise review campaigns, or encourage anyone to harass a business or its staff.

Lunch Plug

We only feature places we have eaten at ourselves. We check the address and hours before publishing and note the date we visited. We don’t accept free meals in exchange for coverage; if a restaurant ever offers one, we say so or decline.

Local Pro profiles

Profiles only go to real businesses that agree to have their facts checked. We show what we checked and when. We do not publish ratings, scores or generic “verified” badges. A profile is not a guarantee of anyone’s work.

Independence, advertising and links

• Advertisers cannot buy favorable coverage, a higher position in any list, or the removal of legitimate criticism.
• Sponsored content is labelled “Sponsored” at the top, and paid links are marked as sponsored.
• We don’t sell links for search-engine ranking, and we never require a link in exchange for coverage.
• Our affiliations with other businesses are disclosed in the stories where they matter and on our Advertising & Affiliations page.

Photos and images

We use original photos or properly licensed stock images. Stock and illustrative images are never presented as photos of a specific business, job, storm or person we reported on.

AI and automation

We may use software tools to help research and organise drafts. A person checks the facts, edits the story and decides whether it is published. Nothing is published automatically.