How long post retention period is it acceptable to still be waiting

[glasgowstations]

Building work “substantially” completed in March 24 with 6 month retention period running to October. Still some works being carried during this period out but roof work and windows subsequently (within retention period) found to be poor and required to be redone. Retention date passed and works were still ongoing, sporadic, wouldn’t hear for weeks then they would turn up for a couple of hours here or a half day there. A decent chunk done before Christmas but still lots still outstanding with no clear plan on finalisation despite asking for this.
Is it normal for this stuff to drag on? Has anyone ever just called it quits with builder, kept retention and got stuff finished themselves? They haven’t billed us…so do we just stop chasing and quietly let it drift into the past and get the stuff finished ourselves? Never done this before…not sure on the etiquette. I’m nervous they come back and bill as a year down the line when we’ve already paid to get it completed ourselves.

Hiya. Unfortunately work in the defects period is always hard to manage.

do you have a building contract? Does it give timescales? If you have an audit trail of attempts to communicate with them, you should be able to withhold the retention and get someone else to complete the works. That what its there for. Just write to the original builder to tell them to complete the works by 'x" date or you will be getting others to complete it, so they can't come back to you.

Do you have enough retention to cover the cost of the outstanding work?

This is what I do for a job. So DM me if you need

@StarShine23 thanks for your response…yes we do have a contract but unfortunately it is silent on post retention period and “proper” completion timescales.
Response is “bitty” which is almost worse. If they totally blanked us then it would be easier to go down the route of final notification, but it’s the “oh yes we will be out on Tuesday to determine next steps” and they come and faff around for a bit…say they will come back…send someone a few days later who does a bit of the job but doesn’t finish it….its just totally infuriating. We’ve asked for a completion plan multiple times and they are just procrastinating over it. I don’t really want to have a big fall out over it but my gosh if they just sent 2 people over for a full day of work they could probably get it done and we could all move on with our lives…