Ask for the certificate, not just the money
When a retention release waits on a certificate, ask about the certificate first: asking for the money before it is issued gets a simple no. Once it is issued, ask for the release with the certificate attached.
Updated: . By Jack Butler-Kettle, Construction Claims Consultant.
Why it matters
Many subcontract releases are tied to a certificate under the main contract: practical completion, or making good at the end of the defects period. You have no part in issuing it, so the release can sit for months while the main contractor and the employer argue about other trades. Ask for the money and you are told the certificate has not been issued. Ask about the certificate and the real questions come out: when it is due, what is holding it, and whether any of those items are yours. Those are the questions that move the date.
How to do it
- Find the certificate or event each release depends on, in the subcontract's own words.
- Ask the main contractor in writing, as the trigger approaches, when the certificate is expected and what, if anything, is holding it.
- Ask for the list of items said to be outstanding, and separate yours from other trades'.
- Close your own items and confirm in writing, with photographs, that they are closed.
- Request the release in the next application once the certificate is issued, with the certificate attached.
Example
Illustrative example. The scenario and figures are invented.
The facts
A joinery subcontractor's second release of £8,400 depends on the certificate of making good under the main contract. The defects period ended 2 months ago and nothing has been issued.
What happens
- The subcontractor writes to the main contractor asking when the certificate is expected and which items are holding it.
- The reply lists 14 outstanding items. Two are joinery, both door adjustments.
- The subcontractor closes the two items within a week and confirms it in writing with photographs.
- The subcontractor asks for written confirmation that nothing else outstanding is joinery, and gets it.
- The certificate is issued 5 weeks later, and the subcontractor requests the release in the next application with the certificate attached.
The outcome
The £8,400 is paid in that cycle. A request for the money alone would have been met with the answer that the certificate had not been issued.
To have this done for you, see our Retention Claim service.