The owner acts to keep it, not to return it.
We do not hold funds, inspect works, judge defects, or transfer money. What we hold is the arrangement, and the default direction of it is reversed.
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01
Retention is recorded at handover
Amount, percentage, and the length of the maintenance period, fixed when the project completes rather than reconstructed later.
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02
The period runs
Both parties see the same clock. The contractor knows exactly when the money is due back, and so does the owner.
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03
A defect claim is an action
The owner claims against the retention if something fails. That is a step, taken deliberately, against a specific fault.
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04
Otherwise it returns
The period ends and the position closes. Nobody has to initiate a release, because release is what happens when nothing else did.
An owner with a genuine defect is no worse off. What disappears is the outcome where money stays behind because a filing cabinet outlived the people who understood it.
If you are owed retention, or holding it.
The useful thing is specific: how much you are carrying, how old, and what happened when you asked.