1. Source of Truth and Related Documents
The Dispute Resolution Policy controls the detailed platform dispute workflow unless a signed Project SOW, statutory attachment, payment-network rule, non-waivable law, legal order, or later accepted policy expressly controls the specific issue.
This Policy works with the Milestone Payment Terms and Payment Authorization, Refund and Cancellation Policy, Completion and 72-Hour Auto-Approval Terms, Change Order Agreement, Contractor Warranty Terms, Contractor Marketplace Agreement, Master General Provisions Addendum, and applicable project documents. Completa retains dispute records, evidence, and decision documentation for at least seven years from final dispute decision or longer where required by law, tax/accounting rules, payment-network rules, legal hold, or active proceedings.
2. Dispute Opening and Evidence
Customer milestone disputes are opened through the in-app dispute flow, or through Completa support if the in-app flow is unavailable. A formal in-app customer dispute must identify the project, milestone, issue category, requested outcome, and at least one evidence photo. Customers do not enter a disputed dollar amount; Completa determines the affected amount, refund cap, reserve amount, or hold amount from project, milestone, payment, reserve, SOW, and ledger records.
Messages, documents, and a written description may be accepted where available. A description is optional for structured dispute reasons and required for Other, vague, or uncategorized reasons. Support or admin fallback may document exceptional no-photo cases only when the app is unavailable or a photo cannot reasonably be provided.
Contractors respond in the platform where the workflow requests a response. Contractors may raise payment, scope, evidence, safety, abuse, or customer-conduct concerns through platform response, support, or admin escalation. A separate in-app contractor dispute filing flow is not required for launch.
3. Completa Role
Completa LLC may administer platform disputes and make payment, refund, payout, reserve, replacement, account-status, and platform-access decisions under the applicable Terms, Project SOW, Milestone Payment Terms and Payment Authorization, Refund and Cancellation Policy, this Dispute Resolution Policy, Contractor Marketplace Agreement, Stripe/payment processor rules, and applicable law.
Completa is not a court, formal legal arbitrator, escrow agent, contractor, insurer, or workmanship guarantor. Completa's platform dispute process does not prevent either party from exercising non-waivable rights under applicable law.
Completa makes platform dispute decisions in good faith based on the evidence reasonably available. Routine payment, milestone-completion, refund, change-order, callback, and replacement decisions use a preponderance-of-evidence standard. Protective fraud, safety, compliance, legal, processor, or chargeback holds may use a reasonable-basis standard where waiting for fuller evidence would create payment, safety, legal, or platform risk. Completa documents the basis for each material decision in the platform record.
4. Milestone Review
Customer has 72 hours after valid milestone completion notice to approve, dispute, or request callback. Milestone review and 72-hour auto-approval mechanics are governed by the Completion and 72-Hour Auto-Approval Terms. Valid notice requires contractor marking the milestone complete, required evidence uploaded, customer notice sent, milestone scope identified, required photos/notes available where required, required permit/inspection document uploaded if applicable, and reasonable ability to review under those terms.
If customer does nothing for 72 hours after valid notice, Completa may treat the milestone as approved for payment-release purposes, subject to disputes, missing evidence, safety/compliance holds, payment holds, admin holds, permit/inspection holds, and warranty rights.
5. Reserves, Holds, and Phase Two
Completa applies the milestone's frozen risk-tiered reserve policy snapshot: 0% for first or deposit milestones, 3% for low-risk milestones, 5% for standard interior milestones, 8% for exterior, weather, or access-risk milestones, and 10% for licensed or regulated work where the snapshot applies. Routine cash reserve release is seven calendar days after approval or valid auto-approval unless an active dispute, chargeback, refund, compliance issue, legal/payment hold, or other authorized hold applies. A separate hold may hold up to 100% of the affected amount where authorized.
Phase 1 disputes are reviewed while the milestone payment has not been approved or released. Phase 2 disputes may proceed only while the reserve is unreleased or another authorized hold exists. Phase 2 refund exposure is limited to the retained reserve or other authorized held amount unless law, payment-network rule, fraud, chargeback, or another recovery path requires or permits more. If Phase 2 callback or rework is accepted and completed, the remaining reserve stays held for an additional three calendar days after customer redo confirmation before release unless a new dispute, hold, chargeback, or legal/payment issue applies.
6. Platform Outcomes and Refund Status
Customer-facing formal outcomes are full refund, partial refund, no refund, callback or rework, and cancel or reassign. Internal actions may include credit, reserve application, payout offset, account warning, suspension, termination, legal escalation, insurance escalation, or payment-network handling. Internal actions must trace to one platform decision and ledger record, while customer-facing labels remain simple.
Completa targets initial platform dispute decisions within seven (7) business days after filing where reasonably possible. Operational contractor response reminders, escalation reminders, and status cadence do not shorten or replace that target. Complex disputes, including multi-milestone disputes, replacement-contractor workflows, fraud or safety investigations, statutory-attachment review, insurer review, chargebacks, or payment-network proceedings, may require additional time. Completa will notify both parties of material extensions where reasonably possible.
Customer-facing refund status categories are limited to: refund approved and preparing for processing; additional payment processing steps required; refund processing with bank or card-network timing; review hold; and refund completed. Internal refund, payout, reserve, transfer reversal, offset, chargeback, and recovery details remain in the platform record and ledger.
7. Callback and Replacement
Completa cannot physically force work, but can contractually require callback/rework as a condition of payout, warranty compliance, and platform standing. Refusal may trigger refund, payout hold, offset, replacement, suspension, or termination.
A replacement decision may be recorded as a preliminary platform decision before all operational replacement work is complete. The original dispute must not be finally resolved or closed as a completed replacement outcome until the replacement closure gate is satisfied: original scope paused or closed, completed and uncompleted scope documented, customer approval recorded, replacement contractor signature recorded, payment or milestone schedule adjusted, and original SOW closed or partially closed. Replacement is not subcontracting by the original contractor.
8. Internal Appeal and Legal Forum
Either party may request one internal review of a platform dispute decision within seven business days after notice of the decision; only one internal appeal review for the same decision may be active at a time. A timely later appeal submission received while an appeal review is pending may be consolidated with the pending review or queued for review; timeliness is based on receipt. Completa will complete internal review within five business days where reasonably possible, unless payment-network, safety, fraud, legal, or processor deadlines require faster or different handling. The internal appeal does not waive arbitration, court carveouts, payment-network rights, statutory rights, or non-waivable remedies described in the Master General Provisions Addendum.