When retention is not released

Retention that should have been released and has not been is a debt. It is not a favour being withheld, and the routes to recovering it are the ordinary payment routes.

Establish that it is actually due

First, the unglamorous part. Has the certificate of making good been issued, or should it have been? Are there outstanding defects? Was a schedule ever issued?

If the certifier has simply not issued a schedule, the release is not yet triggered and the complaint is about the process rather than the money. That is a different letter.

Put it in an application

If a payment cycle still exists, include the retention release in an application. That puts the sum into the notice regime: the payer must issue a payment notice or a pay less notice by the deadline, or the notified sum stands.

This converts a request into a contractual mechanism, and it is far more effective than correspondence because the deadlines are not optional.

Adjudication

The right to adjudicate exists at any time. Retention disputes are well suited to it: the sums are defined, the entitlement is documentary, and there is rarely much factual complexity.

Twenty-eight days from referral to decision, and decisions are enforced robustly. For a defined sum with a clear contractual trigger, it is proportionate.

Interest

Late payment of a commercial debt attracts interest, either under the contract or under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts legislation. On a sum held for a year the interest is not trivial, and claiming it changes the economics of stalling.

Many contractors never claim it, which is one reason stalling continues to be a viable strategy for the party holding the money.

Where set-off is being asserted

If the payer says it is withholding against defects or damages, the question is whether a valid notice was given. Withholding from a notified sum without a pay less notice is ineffective regardless of the merits of the underlying claim.

That is often the strongest point available, and it is decided by dates rather than by argument about the works.

The commercial judgement

Against a client you want to work for again, the calculation is not purely legal. But leaving money uncollected does not build a relationship; it builds an expectation. The application route is formal without being adversarial, and it is usually enough.