Identifying Causes of Claims in The Egyptian Construction Sector

Abstract

This research aims to study the causes of claims in the construction industry. The scope of the study is located in Egypt because of the huge number of projects in the construction sector. The occurrence of claims between the parties involved in the project (the owner, consultant, and contractor) leads to a loss of time, money, and effort. Knowing the causes of claims leads to avoiding them and thus increasing the chances of success of construction projects. The factors and causes of claims in the construction industry were determined by reviewing previous studies and interviewing experts working in the field, then A questionnaire survey was conducted and 385 specialists in the construction industry were exposed Statistical analysis was done, and the results concluded that the most important causes of claims in the construction industry in Egypt are: increase in cost due to changes prices, lack of funding to the contractor, change and fluctuation of the exchange rate and the rate of inflation changes in design and specifications, Increases in costs and quantities more than 25% of the contract value, increases of variation orders, lack of coordination between the design and implementation processes and delay to get approvals and permissions. Mitigation actions proposed to deal with avoid claim factors revolve around a good study of the contract documents at the tender stage, good coordination, and careful follow-up by the participating parties during the ring construction phase.