Micro and macro level of dispute causes in residential building projects: Studies of Saudi Arabia

The objective of this research is to identify the common direct and indirect (micro and macro level) dispute causes in residential building projects in Saudi Arabia. The questionnaire method was used in this research. Randomly distributed questionnaire technique was applied to 120 contractors to evaluate the severity of the identified 29 direct dispute causes and 32 indirect dispute causes. The analysis of the identified causes indicates that the top five severe direct dispute causes are: delay in progress payment by owner, unrealistic contract duration, change orders, poor quality of completed works, and labor inefficiencies respectively. While the top five severe indirect dispute causes are: inadequate contractor’s experience, lack of communication between construction parties, ineffective planning and scheduling of project by contractor, cash problems during construction, and poor estimation practices.