We never know when our retention is due back
Retention comes off every payment, but nobody here could tell you what is held, on which jobs, or when any of it is due.
Updated: . By Jack Butler-Kettle, Construction Claims Consultant.
What's happening?
Retention comes off quietly on every certificate, and the events that release it happen long after the job's team has moved on. Unless somebody records the sum held and the release dates from the start, that knowledge sits in one surveyor's head or nowhere. When that person leaves, the dates leave with them.
The result is predictable. Releases that fall due are never requested, and nobody checks the amount held against the certificates. The first anyone hears of it is when a director asks why a finished job still shows money owed. By then the evidence is harder to find, and your main contractor has had your money for years.
The solution
Keep one register of the retention held on every job, started the day each subcontract is signed. For each job, record the percentage and any limit, what triggers each release and the evidence it needs. Then record the sum held after every certificate and the date each release is expected. Put each date in a diary with a warning ahead of it, and name one person to keep the register.
Retention Loss Prevention sets up that register and diary across your live and finished jobs, and writes the release requests ready to send. We prove the routine on your next live release, then hand it to your team. With the optional Ongoing check, we read the register every month.
Example
Illustrative example. The scenario and figures are invented.
The facts
A mechanical subcontractor runs about twelve jobs a year, all with 3 or 5 per cent retention. Nobody can say what is held in total, and the surveyor who tracked it in a personal spreadsheet has just left.
What happens
- The subcontractor starts a register from the subcontracts and the last certificate on each of 22 live and finished jobs.
- The retention held comes to £146,000. Four finished jobs, £23,000 in all, have releases that fell due and were never requested, and they are flagged the same day.
- Every future release date goes into a shared diary with a warning 3 weeks ahead, and each release request is written ready for its application.
- The commercial manager keeps the register, with the QS as deputy, and updates it after every certificate.
- The next release to fall due, £6,200 on practical completion of a school job, is requested in that month's application with the certificate attached.
The register in figures
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Retention held across 22 jobs | £146,000 |
| Fallen due and never requested, four jobs | £23,000 |
| First release requested through the register | £6,200 |
The outcome
The £6,200 is paid on the final date for payment. The four overdue jobs go to a separate recovery, with their dates already worked out.