How to check last build configuration properties

Hi.

We are running a certain build, which we would like to behave in a certain way in the case of successive failures (one failure is acceptable).

After a failure, check if the last successful build was more than X minutes ago, if so, do some task T.
A different option is to check if the last build failed as well, and if so do T.

Is there any way to check if "last build failed"?
Even better - is there any way to get the time that some build from some configuration started / ended?
Our build does not have artifacts, and we do not wish to add artificial artifacts just for this sake.

Thanks!