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Claims and disputes are often unavoidable in the construction industry due to its unique and complex characteristics involving the massive investment of capital, lengthy project duration, and multiple project stakeholders. This chapter intends to identify the critical construction claims attributes, compare the perceptions of major stakeholders on different claim attributes, and investigate the contrast of the top five claim attributes between this study and previous ones. The literature review resulted in 48 claim attributes responsible for the construction project schedule delays. These attributes were then presented to Vietnam construction industry (VCI) practitioners in the form of a questionnaire survey. Data analysis was done based on the collected 113 qualified samples. Relative importance index (RII) was applied to determine the ranking of claim attributes. The results were that the top five causes of claims, that is, payment delays, mistakes by contractor during construction stage, delays in work progress by the contractor, financial failure of the contractor, and frequently changing requirements by the owner, lead to the schedule delays in VCI. These findings can assist the local industry practitioners and foreign companies seeking a share in the VCI market in understanding the causes of construction claims comprehensively and formulating the countermeasures to minimise their impacts and hence reduce the unnecessary losses and raise the likelihood of success as well as maintain sustainable relationships among stakeholders.

Claims are increasingly becoming a norm in construction projects and thus an area that is attracting interventions through researches. This paper aims to establish causes–effects relationship of claims in construction projects.

This is correlation study type of study that attempts to establish causes–effects relationship of claims in construction projects. Significant causes and effects of construction claims were determined using one-sample t-test. To establish the relationship, the significant causes and effects of construction claims were correlated using bivariate correlation analysis.

Among the significant causes, variations, change of scope of the project and delay in completion of works have high level of significant positive relationship with five to six other causes and positive relationship with multiple effects ranging from five to six. Besides, among significant effects, delay in completion and delivering of construction projects, poor contractual relationship among parties and extension of time have significant positive relationship with multiple causes.

The findings of this study are limited to causes-causes relationship and causes–effects relationship of claims in construction projects. This means effects–effects relationship was not covered that could be an important area to investigate as some of causes and effects are at times termed interchangeably.

With reference to previous studies which have focused on determining the causes and effects of construction claims, the findings of the current study have specific contribution on claims management as it divulges the causes of constructions claims that have multiplier effects to the project as a result of their linkage.

The paper unveils causes of claims with multiplier effects to construction projects for project participants to devise strategies to minimize and consequently eliminate them.

The term claim has become of paramount significance in construction projects worldwide. This research is targeted at providing a deeper insight of the status of claims management in general and change order claims in particular with respect to the Egyptian industrial construction sector, as change orders have proven to be the main cause of claims in this sector. A questionnaire focusing on persistent issues noted in construction management literature within the past fifteen years was addressed to a selected sample of Egyptian construction industrial projects. The results furnished by the sampled projects demonstrated clearly that claims management in the Egyptian industrial construction sector has been suffering from a variety of impediments, including lack of proper notification procedures in public contracts and poor documentation management. The results indicated that oral change orders were present in nearly 76% of the sample projects and that half of these oral changes resulted in loss of rights due to improper documentation, which could be attributed to the lack of the contract awareness of the site team and to the “fear of consultant” phenomenon. The main cause of change orders was categorised by approximately 67% of the respondents as the additional scope of work, which was largely attributed to the fast track nature of the industrial sector. The research also identified several factors associated with time and cost increases of the sampled projects, among which were: private ownership and unit rate contracts. Finally, several recommendations for improving claims management are put forward. They included: the formation of a unified form of general contract condition for all the Egyptian industrial sector; the use of information technology systems in lieu of traditional filing procedures and the inclusion of a float‐sharing provision in contracts.

The purpose of this paper is to present a novel hybrid fuzzy-system dynamics (SD) approach for the quantification of the impacts of construction claims.

The most significant claims affecting a project are identified. The various factors affecting the impacts of claims are identified. Then, the qualitative model of construction claims is constructed considering the complex inter-related structure of the influencing factors. The mathematical relationships among the variables are determined and the quantitative model of claims is built. Finally, fuzzy logic is integrated into the proposed model to take into account the existing uncertainties.

To show the capabilities of the proposed simulation model, it is implemented on a real project and the impacts of the identified claims on the project cost are quantified. It is shown that the external interactions among different claims can intensify their overall impact.

Identification of interactions among various influencing factors is not an easy job when there are a large number of claims in a project. Well-qualified experts and the existence of historical data may limit the application of the proposed method in projects with limited data and/or qualified experts.

The proposed hybrid fuzzy-SD approach provides a practical and flexible tool that can be used in various construction projects to assess the cost impacts of construction claims taking into account their complex interactions. Using the proposed method, the accuracy of achieved results is increased compared to conventional methods that are used for the quantification of claims since the complex inter-related structure of influencing factors and the claims interactions are taken into account. One of the capabilities of the proposed hybrid fuzzy-SD method is its flexibility. Depending on the type of contract and the parties involved in the project, the proposed hybrid fuzzy-SD method can be used during different stages of the project life cycle to model and quantify claims.

The proposed approach may present a flexible and robust method for quantification of construction claims. The novelty aspects of this paper are as follows: the extensively complex structure of claims arising from both internal and external interactions is accounted for using SD. The existing uncertainties affecting the impacts of a claim are taken into account.

Disputes are now considered endemic in the construction industry. They often arise from the poor resolution of claims in the course of construction projects. Efforts have been geared towards reducing the incidence of claims. These efforts are of two kinds: those that seek answers from basic principles and legal issues at the pre‐construction phase and those that attempt to solve the problems through claims management procedures at the construction phase. This paper reviews the developments in claims management and highlights the deficiencies in current claims management approaches. It focuses on the need for improvement of the efficiency of claims negotiation and suggests the use of multiagent systems as an approach to achieve it. The potential benefits of the suggested approach are discussed in the concluding section of the paper.

It is necessary and useful to differentiate destructive from constructive conflict and avoidable from necessary claims; and also to minimize disputes arising from unresolved conflict and claims in construction projects. This paper analyses such needs and proposes means of meeting them through an appropriate classification of construction claims; an estimation of their relative significance in terms of magnitude and frequency; and an identification of the proximate and root causes of the significant claims. A hierarchy of such claims, proximate and root causes is presented, based mainly on data collected from 61 projects and on 46 responses to questionnaires in Hong Kong. Measures of the relative significance of the claims categories are also presented. The results are reinforced by observations from parallel studies in Hong Kong and elsewhere, as well as from the literature. Strategies are suggested to avoid the avoidable and mitigate the unavoidable or unavoided claims, through controlling the controllable causes. Management focus is also recommended on controlling the causes of those categories of claims and disputes that are seen to be significant in terms of higher impact and/or probability of occurrence.

Delay and disruption claims involve a complex process that often result in disputes, unnecessary expenses and time loss on construction projects. This study aims to review and synthesize the contributions of previous research undertaken in this area and propose future directions for improving the process of delay and disruption claims.

This study adopted a holistic systematic review of literature following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis guidelines. A total of 230 articles were shortlisted related to delay and disruption claims in construction using Scopus and Web of Science databases.

Six research themes were identified and critically reviewed including delay analysis, disruption analysis, claim management, contract administration, dispute resolution and delay and disruption information and records. The systematic review showed that there is a dearth of research on managing the wide-ranging information required for delay and disruption claims, ensuring the transparency and uniformity in delay and disruption claims’ information and adopting an end-user’s centred research approach for resolving the problems in the process of delay and disruption claims.

Complexities in delay and disruption claims are real-world problems faced by industry practitioners. The findings will help the research community and industry practitioners to prioritize their energies toward information management of delay and disruption claims.

This study contributes to the body of knowledge in delay and disruption claims by identifying the need for conducting more research on its information requirements and management. Subsequently, it provides an insight on the use of modern technologies such as drones, building information modeling, radio frequency identifiers, blockchain, Bigdata and machine learning, as tools for more structured and efficient attainment of required information in a transparent and consistent manner. It also recommends greater use of design science research approach for delay and disruption claims. This will help to ensure delay and disruption claims are the least complex and less dispute-prone process.

Following the global financial crisis in 2008, the construction sector in UAE has been facing emergent criticisms for growing adversarial culture and rising prevalent claims and disputes between stakeholders. The complex, large size and fast track nature of construction projects in UAE, make project management very challenging under the commonly used traditional procurement routes. This paper aims to examine whether implementing collaborative procurement approaches can facilitate resolving the escalating number of claims and disputes in the UAE construction industry.

Considering the nature of the study, a quantitative method was selected to realize the research objectives. The questionnaire was uploaded using an online survey facility and distributed through e-mails and professional networks. The questionnaire was piloted with experts to assess whether the questions are unambiguous, easy to respond and intelligible. The feedback received was mostly positive with few comments and recommendations. The pilot responses were incorporated and the questionnaire was modified before the final sending out. The questionnaire survey consisted of six main sections to fulfill the research objectives.

Around three-quarters of the experts believe that the relationship is adversarial, with a lack of trust, win-lose attitude, with dismissive and opportunistic behavior. The survey reveals that the top causes of claims and disputes comprise the following: variations because clients initiated change requests; contractors selection on low bid only rather than including quality and performance considerations; and unfair risk allocation where majority of risks are transferred to contractors. The findings also identify eight collaborative practices, which have crucial positive impacts such as early identification of problems, better communication and enhanced trust and teamwork.

This research contributes to the enhancement of the management of claims and disputes for construction projects, which encompasses the following: the key characteristics of collaborative arrangements to improve the adversarial construction culture comprise: mutual respect, openness, fairness and non-opportunistic behaviors; the foremost roles of collaborative procurement in reducing claims and disputes embrace: early identification and resolution of problems, enhanced trust and teamwork spirit, improved relationships and better quality communication; the major practical barriers of implementing collaborative approaches incorporate: lack of awareness of their benefits, primitive legal framework of partnering arrangements and lack of transparency in procurement processes.

This study aims at introducing a claim management model based on building information modeling (BIM) for claims that can be visualized in BIM models.

Based on the results of a questionnaire survey, 10 claims were identified as claims that can be visualized in BIM models (named hard claims in this study). Then, a BIM-based claim management model was developed and used in a case study.

A BIM-based claim management model is represented. The claim management process through this model consists of four steps: (1) extracting project information, identifying conditions prone to claim and storing them into a relational database, (2) automatically connecting the database to building information model, (3) simulation of the claims in building information model and (4) final calculations and report.

The proposed model can provide benefits to parties involved in a claim, such as early identification of potential claims, large space for data storage, facilitated claim management processes, information consistency and improved collaboration.

There are a few studies on providing solutions to claim management based on BIM process. Hence, the original contribution of this paper is the attempt to set a link between BIM and claim management processes.

Projects in the construction industry have been confronted with an unprecedented volume of claims, which negatively impact the construction business environment. The purpose of this paper is to identify and assess the major causes of claims and disputes, from the perspectives of three key stakeholders.

An online and paper-based questionnaire was distributed to a random sample of 250 professionals. Responses from 86 construction professionals were obtained. The significance index was employed to rank the factors and hence assess their relative significance. Results were analyzed from both the individual stakeholder, and collective perspectives. Test of agreement was also conducted.

The research found the following causes to be the most significant contributors to claims and disputes in Saudi Arabia: “change or variation orders due to new requirements from client” (78 percent), “variations in quantities due to new requirements from client” (74 percent), “delay caused by contractor” (74 percent), “design errors or omissions” (72 percent) and “inconsistencies in the drawings and specifications” (70 percent).

The research provides an in-depth assessment of the causes of claims and disputes, in the setting of a fast growing industry, in which strong performance is essential to continued success. Unlike several of the reviewed studies which reported “delay caused by the owner” or “delayed in payment” as a major cause of claims and/or disputes, the findings of the current study indicated that this cause was not the most significant. Instead, it was determined that the top causes of claims and disputes were attributed to all parties, including consultants, contractors and clients.