American Journal of Civil Engineering and Architecture, 2014, Vol. 2, No. 6, 186-196 Available online at http://pubs.sciepub.com/ajcea/2/6/2 © Science and Education Publishing DOI:10.12691/ajcea-2-6-2 Reducing Construction Disputes through Effective Claims Management Hossam H. Mohamed, Ahmed H. Ibrahim, Asmaa A. Soliman * Construction Engineering & Utilities Department, Zagazig University, Zagazig, Egypt *Corresponding author: asmaamadany@hotmail.com Received October 01, 2014; Revised December 05, 2014; Accepted December 09, 2014 Abstract Reducing construction disputes appears to be the main goal for many researchers in the last decay. Each of them has attempted to clearly identify the expected causes of disputes. Construction claims can be considered as a main source of disputes. This paper aims to identify the most important causes that converting construction claims into disputes. A proposed system that can help to avoid converting construction claims into disputes was provided. Factors that causing disputable claims were identified through four stages. The first stage 140 factors that causing disputable claims were collected from international literature. The second stage a brainstorming was used to reduce the number of these factors and get the most common factors causing disputable claims. Hence 31 factors were only considered. These factors were divided into three major categories: behavioral, contractual and operational matters. Through third stage, the thirty one factors were subjected to a further survey to identify their importance index (relative significance). One hundred and two interviews were conducted and their results are employed to develop an importance index score for these disputable claims causes. Furthermore, the thirty one disputable claims causes were then ranked according to their relative importance. The fourth stage, The 80/20 rule applied to the causes identified to get the eight most important causes that represented about 25% of the causes. The most important eight factors were considered as the factors that converting claims into disputes which identified as follows: 1) delay interim payment from client, 2) qualification of team work, 3) extension of time, 4) incomplete drawings and specification, 5) Poorly written contracts clauses, 6) change orders, 7) cooperation and communication nature among project team, 8) late supply of equipment and materials. A proposed system for avoiding converting claims into disputes was presented. Furthermore, a checklist was designed during construction stage and four actual case studies were considered and discussed. Keywords: causes of disputes, disputable claims management Cite This Article: Hossam H. Mohamed, Ahmed H. Ibrahim, and Asmaa A. Soliman, “Reducing Construction Disputes through Effective Claims Management.” American Journal of Civil Engineering and Architecture, vol. 2, no. 6 (2014): 186-196. doi: 10.12691/ajcea-2-6-2. 1. Introduction El-Wakel [6] defined "construction claims" as a claim involving a demand for payment or work related to a construction project. The claim may be either from a contractor claiming additional compensation due to changes in a contract or a client asking for compensation or additional work to be completed by a contractor not fulfilling the terms of a contract. Charehzehi and Ahankoob [2] mentioned that “a dispute can be said to exist when a claim or assertion is made by one party is rejected by the other party and that rejection is not accepted.” On the other hand, incongruence among various parties in terms of their profits, requirements, and purposes which can lead them to try for the achievement of their own goals, refer to construction dispute. Overall dispute occurs when parties reject to deliver their obligations under the contract provisions. Figure 1 identifies the relationship between conflict, claims, and disputes. In addition, it shows that claims can in turn lead to disputes when settlement cannot be reached. Figure 1. Conflict, Claims and disputes Adapted from Gebken [8] El-Mesteckawi [4] founded that, there are three types of claims according to claimant compensation; time claims, cost claims and time and cost claims. The word