Write it down. That is already the case.

Community Alliance of Tenants puts “Importance of Documentation” on almost every Oregon know-your-rights topic for a reason: a later hearing will not remember the leak, the knock, or the text. HUD’s fair-housing process also starts with dates. Stay Housed LA’s eviction clinics ask what you were handed, and when. This page is the national version of that advice — without pretending a folder is a lawyer.

You are not being dramatic by keeping the envelope. You are making the next conversation possible.

Keep the original. Photograph every page, including the back, the envelope, and any posting on the door. Write the date and time it arrived, and how: hand, mail, tape, text, email, portal. If a court name, a case number, or an appearance date is on it, that is court papers — legal aid the same day, not a later tidy-up.

Do not give away the only copy. Do not sign a move-out or cash-for-keys paper you have not read with an advocate. A photo on your phone is a start. A printed copy in a folder is better if the phone dies.

• Date, time, and who was there for each conversation or showing.
• What was said, as close to word-for-word as you can, and who said it.
• Repair requests: what is broken, since when, how you sent the request, and any reply.
• Photos of the condition, dated, of every room that matters — heat, water, mold, pests, locks, ceilings.
• Rent you paid: receipts, screenshots, money-order stubs. What you paid is often the whole case.
• Move-in and move-out photos if the fight is a deposit.

A text can help. A dated letter you can produce later is stronger. CAT’s Oregon materials say the same thing in their own handouts. The principle is national.

You do not need legal stationery. You need: the address of the unit, today’s date, what is wrong or what you are asking, since when, that you want it repaired or returned or stopped, and a way to reach you. Send it in a way you can prove. Keep a copy.

oregonrentersrights.org and CAT publish sample letters for Oregon. Use theirs if you are in Oregon — they maintain them. This classroom will not paste a template that goes stale. The list above is the skeleton every state’s letter still needs.

You do not have to build a perfect file before you call. Photograph the paper. Call the door that matches: 911 if danger, 988 if a mental-health crisis, 211 for shelter and rent, LawHelp.org if a court is named. Then put the photos in one album named with the date. That is enough for tonight.