Disputes Settlement of Private Housing Construction Agreements: Contract Management Challenges
Publication: Journal of Legal Affairs and Dispute Resolution in Engineering and Construction
Volume 14, Issue 3
Abstract
This research aims to detect the reasons for, challenges to, and methods of settling disputes from private housing construction contracts in the Palestinian Territories (the West Bank) and their consequences in the construction market. Literature on the subject was reviewed, then free discussions were conducted with a focus group of 39 local community representatives (LCRs) in the West Bank (judges, lawyers, and representatives from Palestinian Contractors Union, Engineers Syndicate, municipalities, and governors) to explore the challenges, dispute reasons, and regulatory frames for residential construction agreements in the West Bank. The discussions were followed by a questionnaire sent to 79 landlords and 32 residential contractors. An in-depth statistical analysis was then conducted using the collected data. It was found that a legislative gap in regulating private housing construction agreements has led to the jurisdiction of customary law that preserves the interests of residential contractors to the detriment of landlords. The inequality of bargaining power between the contracting parties, the poor management of agreements, and the lack of engineering supervision in most of these relationships represent significant challenges in the practical conditions of these contractual relationships. This research pursues the reasons for disputes in private housing construction agreements, the lack of a regulatory framework for construction contracts, poor management of agreements, and the absence of engineering supervision.
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Data Availability Statement
All data, models, or code that support the findings of this study, including the responses in the focus group interviews and the questionnaires, are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
References
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Published In
Journal of Legal Affairs and Dispute Resolution in Engineering and Construction
Volume 14 • Issue 3 • August 2022
Copyright
© 2022 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Nov 4, 2021
Accepted: Feb 21, 2022
Published online: May 27, 2022
Published in print: Aug 1, 2022
Discussion open until: Oct 27, 2022
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