International Journal of Contemporary Architecture ”The New ARCH“ Vol. 4, No. 2 (2017) ISSN 2198-7688 ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________ R. Komurlu, D. Arditi: “The Role of General Conditions relative to Claims and Disputes in Building Construction Contracts”, pp. 27–36 27 DOI: 10.14621/tna.20170203 The Role of General Conditions relative to Claims and Disputes in Building Construction Contracts Ruveyda Komurlu* ,1 , David Arditi 2 1) Faculty of Architecture and Design, Kocaeli University 41300 Kocaeli, Turkey; ruveydakomurlu@gmail.com, rkomurlu@iit.edu 2) Illinois Institute of Technology, Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering 3201 S. Dearborn St., Chicago, IL 60616, USA, arditi@iit.edu Abstract Claims are often caused by changes in owner requirements, extra work, delays/acceleration, differing site conditions, and contract ambiguity. Some claims sometimes escalate into legal disputes because the negotiation process between the owner and the contractor fails to produce mutually agreeable solutions. The mostly used dispute resolution methods include mediation and arbitration in private projects; and recourse to Boards of Contract Appeals in public projects. In addition, parties can always litigate the case in a court of law. “General Conditions” is a contract document that regulates the administrative functions in the construction contract. The management of change orders, claims, and disputes is generally discussed in this document. Not only does the “General Conditions” specify the processes of change order and claims management, but it also clearly states the method of dispute resolution in case claims cannot be settled amicably. “A201-2007 General Conditions of the Contract for Construction” was issued by the American Institute of Architects to regulate the relations between the owner, the architect, the general contractor, and subcontractors. This document has gained wide acceptance in the building construction industry, and is used in most building construction projects in the U.S. The “General Conditions for Construction” was issued by the Turkish Ministry of Environment and Urbanization for the management of public projects. The government is the most important investor of building construction projects in Turkey and expects this document to be used in all construction projects, including privately funded projects. This study aims to investigate the role of “General Conditions” relative to claims and disputes in building construction contracts by comparing the contents of “A201-2007 General Conditions of the Contract for Construction” in the U.S. and the “General Conditions for Construction” in Turkey relative to managing claims and disputes. 1. Introduction The Project Management Institute (PMI) [1] defines a project as a temporary endeavor performed to achieve a unique product. Detailing the concept, PMI sets a project on three constraints namely scope, budget and time. Quality, in addition to these, is a goal to be pursued through the whole project. These constraints are interrelated, which means altering one, results in changes to at least one other. Starting with the investment decision, and ending with the delivery of the constructed facility, building construction projects are performed on a piece of land, exhibit high complexity, take a relatively long time, require considerable funding, and involve numerous parties [2]. The contracting process is managed by a set of documents (Table 1) [3]. The expectations of the owner, the procedures to be followed, and the properties of the project are described via these documents. The relationship between the most important parties, i.e., the owner, the architect, and the contractor is regulated by contract documents. As seen in Table 1, these documents primarily consist of the drawings, the general conditions, the technical specifications, and contract document forms [4]. Among these, the general conditions regulate the roles, responsibilities and liabilities of the parties throughout the construction process. Thus, the “general conditions” is a very important part of the contract documents [2, 5] as it regulates all administrative procedures to be implemented throughout the project, including payment and scheduling routines, the issuing of change orders, the handling of claims, and the resolution of conflicts and disputes between the parties, among others [2]. The standardization of the general conditions has numerous advantages, including saving preparation time, avoiding omissions, eliminating controversial language, avoiding misinterpretation among parties, achieving consistency in courts of law by building familiarity through general and frequent use, and Keywords: Building construction; Contracts; Change orders; Claims and disputes; Disputes resolution; General conditions; AIA A201-2007; Turkish general conditions for construction Article history: Received: 16 July 2017 Revised: 24 July 2017 Accepted: 28 July 2017