NBS: poor time management sparks disputes

Projects are more likely to go into dispute over extensions of time than any other reason, according to a survey of clients, contractors and clients.

The survey also suggested that 30% of respondents had been involved in a project with a dispute in 2012, a rise of around 5% from 2011.

The second annual NBS National Construction Contracts and Law Survey was carried out in June in July 2013 and was biased towards consultants, who formed 68% of the group. Clients made up 13% and contractors 19%.

Respondents were asked to identify the main causes of disputes in 2012, with "extensions of time" being named by just under half the sample, at 49%. Other reasons included defective work, named by one in three (32%), valuation of interim payments (16%) and contractual terms (6%). 

Another question asked the sample to identify the issues that had caused most problems during the construction phases of projects in 2012. "Assessment of delay and extension of time" emerged as the most problematic issue, identified by 44% of clients, 63% of contractors, and 48% of consultants. 

"Lateness in payment" was named by 9% of clients, 34% of contractors and 20% of consultants.

On actual disputes, 70% said that none of the projects they worked on in 2012 had seen a dispute, by 17% had been involved in one disputed project, 6% had involvement in two, and 7% had been involved in three or more. 

The survey found that collaboration was far from the norm, and therefore failing to reduce the number of disputes. 49% of those questioned said that they had not used any collaboration techniques on projects that started in 2012.

When the remaining 51% was questioned further on collaboration, 32% had worked on projects with formal partnering arrangements, 12% on projects with alliancing agreements and 20% on projects with non-binding partnering charters.

But the most common form of collaboration was “a contract that included the ethos of trust and mutual collaboration”, at 61%, although the report’s authors question how effective this would be.

The survey also looked at the types of contracts, procurement methods and pricing mechanisms used in the industry, the use of BIM clauses, and levels of exposure to international projects.

Data specialist NBS is run by RIBA Enterprises, but the survey was circulated to members of over 20 industry organisations, including the CIOB, the British Property Federation and RICS.