When do retention releases actually fall due?

The standard shape releases retention in two steps: the first half at practical completion, the second when the defects arising in the rectification period have been made good, each evidenced by a certificate. But the operative words are the contract's own, and three truths decide whether the money moves. First, the triggers are events, not dates: the release is opened by the certificate of practical completion or of making good, so if the certificate is late or nobody has asked for it, the release has not legally begun, and chasing the certificate is chasing the money. Second, subcontract retention often hangs off the main contract's events, releases tied to practical completion of the main works rather than the subcontract works, which can lawfully hold a subcontractor's money long after their own trade finished; know which regime your contract runs. Third, and decisive in practice: releases are almost never volunteered. The sums sit as credits in someone else's ledger, the account is closed, and the paying side has no diary entry for your money. The parties who collect reliably keep a register of every sum held, its trigger and its forecast date, apply on the day the certificate lands and chase on a rhythm until it is paid. The entitlement is usually clean; what is missing is the asking.

Take a cladding subcontractor auditing their books after a rough year, who finds retention outstanding across six jobs, some finished years ago. On two, practical completion certificates exist, so the first releases are simply applied for, certificate attached, and paid within the cycle: money that had sat unclaimed for want of a letter. On one, the rectification period ended long before, but no making-good certificate was ever issued; a letter chasing it produces the certificate in a fortnight, and the final release follows. On another, the subcontract ties release to the main works' completion, which genuinely has not occurred, so that entry stays on the register with a forecast date instead of a grievance. One account has a real dispute over alleged defects, which goes off to be argued properly rather than blocking the rest. Most of the total comes home inside two cycles, not because anyone fought, but because someone finally asked, correctly, with the triggers evidenced, and the register now makes the asking automatic on every job going forward.