Investigation into the causes of claims in Egyptian building construction

Construction claims have become a significant feature in many construction projects. The understanding of the causes of claims vital to avoiding or reducing claims in the construction industry. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to investigate the causes of claims Egyptian construction. This is achieved through identifying a list of causes from international literature, then modifying the list to suit Egyptian construction through expert interviews. Three case studies were utilized to further investigate the occurrence of each cause in the project. The outcomes of the case studies were analyzed using Pareto Analysis. Three causes were found to be the vital few that are responsible for about 80% of causes. These causes are: “variations initiated by owner / consultant” (almost half of all causes); “inferior quality of design, drawings and / or specifications” (about 21% of causes); and “delays of approval of shop drawings, instructions and decision making” (nearly 8%).