How to Manage Construction Conflicts and Dispute Resolution
Do not find fault, find a remedy.
– Henry Ford
What’s a well-known fact throughout the construction industry? Conflicts and disputes are a normal part of the project process.
If you have ever been a participant on a construction project that completed without any conflicts or issues occurring, consider yourself extremely lucky. A project without conflict would be the exception and not the rule.
So if conflicts are expected, what’s the best course of action to handle them? Being prepared. Although there is no one size fits all solution, there are some key steps to getting to the best outcome possible without fighting it out in court. Want to know how to keep the boxing gloves off, read further?
Why do conflicts occur?
Conflicts typically occur in projects when there are misunderstandings on the requirements, differences in expectations, personality clashes, improper assignment of work scope, and poor workflow management.
Conflicts or disputes can be between the prime contractor, subcontractor, project owner, or design professionals. They also occur whether the contracting parties are from a majority-owned company or minority-owned company, a small business, or large business. Whatever parties are involved, it is always important to keep the focus on the actual issue that is causing the conflict.
Here are some typical sources of conflicts on projects:
- Lack of communication
- Double meaning in specifications
- Incomplete or unsubstantiated claims
- Differing interpretations of the plans or contracts
- Schedule changes or delays
- Work scope misunderstandings
- Defects in the work
- Lack of coordination
Knowing these areas where conflicts typically occur, the first line of defense is to try to avoid them altogether. Here’s how.
Top 5 ways to avoid construction conflicts
The following actions will help you avoid creating conditions that breed conflict.
- Know your contract. Read it thoroughly.
- Carefully understand and negotiate contract terms.
- Make sure schedules are reasonable and perform contractual obligations as scheduled.
- Comply with the contract documents.
- Execute all the work required in your contract in the best workmanlike manner.
Unresolved conflicts breed disputes
As stated before, it is highly unlikely that you’ll find the perfect project where there are no conflicts. However, not all conflicts that occur on projects will result in a dispute. The conflict may be of a nature where all parties agree with the resolution, without dispute. However, conflicts that are left unaddressed or responded to slowly fester and turn into disagreements or disputes between the parties of a contract.
Below is some of the best advice to follow to manage a conflict before finding yourself in the middle of a construction dispute.
- Try to dismiss the emotions and think clearly
- Start with the contract itself
- Examine all the facts
- Get to the core issue
- Be reasonable
- Keep it professional
- Pursue swift, decisive, fair resolution
Construction disputes are costly to projects and project participants in time and money. If you can’t ensure your project is free of the potential for conflicts, every attempt should be made to resolve them prior to their transformation into a dispute. However, if dispute you must, in order to protect your contractual rights, proceed with precision and care. Because the last stop for dispute resolution is litigation, and no one wins at that point (except the lawyers).
Tell us about a conflict or dispute situation you have experienced on a project. Do you feel the resolution was addressed properly? Do you feel you were treated fairly?
For advice on how to address a conflict you have encountered on a project, contact CAI. We would be happy to discuss it with you.
Comments are closed.