Is it too late for you to recover retention on jobs we finished years ago?
Not necessarily: the way to find out is to date every release on every job before anything else is done.
Updated: . By Jack Butler-Kettle, Construction Claims Consultant.
The answer
A release that was only overdue a few years ago may now be close to the last date it can be recovered. So Retention Claim starts by putting every job into one register and rating each release for the evidence behind it. We flag anything close to its deadline in writing to you the day we find it. Those jobs come first. The date is confirmed with your solicitor that week, and the step that protects the sum comes before anything else is valued. That last date, the limitation date, is for your solicitor to confirm, not us. A patchy file does not stop the work. Incomplete records are normal, and a missing subcontract changes how we approach a job rather than ending it. Every release then ends paid, agreed with a date, diarised for a later trigger, or written off with the reason shown.
Example
Illustrative example. The scenario and figures are invented.
The facts
A groundworks subcontractor has 26 finished jobs going back 7 years. Retention still shows on most of them, and there is no subcontract on file for five.
What happens
- Every job goes into one register. Each release is rated for the evidence behind it: the subcontract or order, the trigger document and the payment paperwork.
- The five jobs without a subcontract stay in the register, each with the gap in its evidence recorded.
- Two releases on the oldest jobs are close to the end of the time to recover them. They are flagged in writing that day and go to the solicitor that week.
- The sums on the other jobs are valued from the applications and certificates, and the requests go out in the subcontractor's name.
The outcome
The two oldest releases are dealt with before anything else is valued. Every release on the book then ends paid, agreed with a date, diarised for a later trigger, or written off with the reason shown.
To have the retention on your finished jobs found, dated and recovered, see our Retention Claim service.