Cian BrennanFounder, Quantum Contract Solutions · Founder

Retention and security, in general, are a lot of times unfair for subcontractors.

Name: Retention and security, in general, are a lot of times unfair for subcontractors.
Uploaded: 2026-02-21T04:00:27+00:00
Duration: 48 s
Channel: Cian Brennan
Description: Cian Dillon Brennan argues that retention and security practices in construction contracts are unfair to subcontractors. Builders often hold retention…

21 Feb 2026 · 1 min

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0:48

Cian Dillon Brennan argues that retention and security practices in construction contracts are unfair to subcontractors. Builders often hold retention like unsecured loans, leaving subs unpaid when projects fail. Scaffolders and other trades face inappropriate security requirements that don't match their work.

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The idea of retention for subcontractors is a bit alarming really, because it's not retention or delayed payment, it's actually unsecured lending. You're like, you know, I get the purpose of security and holding money back just in case you don't do a job, but that doesn't really happen in any other industry. So they're holding back money, and a lot of times a lot of these builders are going out of business and they never pay you the retention that you're owed. And sometimes retention or security doesn't apply for the type of work. So I don't know how many times I've been negotiating for a scaffolder and they want to have retention. I'm trying to explain, when our job is done, there's no shuffling, it's gone. Like, why are you holding payment for a period of time? It makes absolutely no sense. You have to explain this to them, like, oh yeah, of course. So retention and security in general is a lot of times really unfair on a subcontractor, and sometimes they're just putting it in as a blanket because it's always in construction contracts.