The job finished, the retention did not
Practical completion was certified eighteen months ago. Half the retention was released then. The rest is due after the rectification period and the making good of defects, which means a certificate of making good, a final valuation and a release. The surveyor who ran the job has since moved to a different region. The project folder is archived.
On the contractor side, the same retention is cash sitting with a client, and on a busy commercial team nobody has a list of which retentions fall due this quarter. On the client side, the practice has a certificate to issue and nobody is tracking it.
Why retention slips through
- Release depends on events that happen after the job is off everyone's desk, such as the end of the defects period.
- Dates are recorded in the contract and in someone's memory, not in a list the practice checks.
- Defects lists and making good certificates are handled by other people, sometimes the architect or contract administrator.
- Subcontractor retentions on the contractor side multiply the number of dates to track.
- Archived projects are, by design, out of sight.
What forgotten retention costs
For contractors and subcontractors, it is cash that stays with someone else for longer than it needs to, and time spent chasing it. For consultant practices, it is certificates issued late, clients or contractors asking awkward questions, and a job that keeps needing unbilled time. Either way, nobody planned for the effort.
| Release point | What needs checking | Who usually holds it |
|---|---|---|
| Practical completion | Certificate issued, first release calculated | Project QS |
| Partial possession | Relevant sections and values | Project QS |
| End of defects period | Defects made good, certificate issued | Contract administrator and QS |
| Subcontract releases | Subcontract terms, main contract events | Contractor's commercial team |
The retention ledger
- Every project with retention gets an entry at contract set-up: the rate, the limit where there is one, and the release events as your surveyor confirms them.
- Each valuation updates the amount held automatically from your valuation record or accounts system.
- Release events are dated when they happen, such as practical completion certified, and the next expected dates are calculated from what your team has confirmed.
- Prompts go to the named person, and to a deputy, a set time before each expected release, with a checklist of what needs to be in place.
- On the contractor side, subcontractor retentions are held in the same ledger and linked to the main contract events they depend on.
- A single view shows every retention held or owed, its next date and its status, for partners or the finance director.
When exactly retention should be released, and on what conditions, is a matter of the contract. The ledger works from what your team enters and confirms, and it never interprets the contract itself.
With the ledger running
The end of a defects period is no longer a surprise. The named surveyor gets a prompt with the checklist, contacts the contract administrator about making good, and prepares the final valuation in good time. Finance can see the retention position across all jobs without asking each surveyor.
It also changes handovers. When a surveyor leaves or moves region, their open retentions are visible in the ledger with dates and conditions, so reassigning them is a short conversation rather than a search through archived folders. The defects period no longer depends on one person's memory surviving a job change.
Is retention slipping in your business?
- Nobody has a single list of retentions held or owed.
- End of defects dates are tracked by memory.
- Retention has been chased months after it was due.
- Subcontractor retentions are tracked in separate spreadsheets.
- Archived projects still have money attached to them.