The Adequacy of Contractual Provisions in Managing Construction Failure in Malaysia

Abstract

Arising of any failure in construction is a vital issue. It could be a source of dispute among different parties involved in construction. Therefore, the contract is the main reference to overcome issues regarding to failure claims. When construction failure occurred after the contractual period, the contract provisions are not applicable. Moreover, the contractual relationships couldn't be referred anymore. Thus, all parties seek to the justice to define their role and duty on failure loss and remedial cost based on the contract. The level of inadequacy of failure management consideration in the current contract documents was measured. Moreover, the limitations in current contractual provisions were evaluated to suggest the new scope for contractual provisions in managing construction failure. The evaluations were performed by interview with a panel of experts in the construction industry and legal sector. Furthermore, all current contracts provisions were investigated. Therefore, any related issues to the failure events were illustrated precisely. Then, the questionnaire survey identified the limitations and indicated opportunities to extend the scope of current provisions. Related Index was used to rank the factors and issues based on their importance. Refusing to cooperate during the failure event from default parties is the main limitation. Moreover, low quality of completed projects; bringing a bad image to client, and disputes between the involved parties are the main causes due to limitations based on engineers' and the legal sector's ideas. The new scope of contractual provisions was approved by more than %70 of the respondents.

Keywords: Building failure; Contract conditions; Contract documentation; Contract law.