Disputes in construction projects : a perspective of project characteristics

Over the decades, the construction industry has been experiencing disputes in different project contexts. For example, disputes are more prevalent in traditionally procured projects and in projects with a complex nature of design. Further, certain large-scale government projects have had disputes due to budget and payment issues. Disputes adversely affect the project budget, the schedule, and the quality, thereby affecting the project performance at large. Therefore, this study examines the causes of disputes from the perspective of project characteristics. Following a review of causes of disputes, a total of 44 building projects were surveyed, and the required data were collected by referring to relevant project documents and through semistructured interviewes among project participants. The results revealed that payment delays, ambiguities in documents, and scope changes are a few of the critical causes that can be attributed to the type of client, cost and size of projects, degree of design complexity, procurement method, and source of funding. Therefore, this study recommends that, as a matter of importance, the potential causes of disputes should be addressed as per the project contexts at an early stage in order to avoid the disputes, and to mitigate the resultant effects in the construction industry.