What are Construction Disputes and how do they can be transformed into Litigation?

Construction business is considered as the leading industry in the UAE. Construction means works involved in projects, such as the construction of real estate property, villas, factories, and warehouses. Therefore, the contractor is bound to construct the intended real estate property in accordance with the owner’s requirements and as per the contract.

Thus, the requirements and contracting aspects usually lead to many disputes related to delays in delivery, amendments during the execution of work, delays in obtaining the approval from the project consultant or the refrain of consultant from approving project batches and other disputes that usually arise in large construction works. Therefore, if in any case one of the contracting party approaches to the concerned court by getting aggrieved by the action of other, in this situation the said dispute will be transformed into construction litigation.

NA-Lawyerss Law firm tends to provide qualified construction lawyers, having their expertise in dealing with the cases relating to Construction Litigation Disputes. Our law firm relies upon its long, extensive experience in representing clients concerning construction disputes, either in the dispute stage, through amicable settlement attempts before resorting to litigation procedures, or by representing the client before the courts. Hence, we explain our services in three stages, below for better understanding:

Our law firm represent the clients after taking into consideration conflicts of interests regarding the procedures that should be followed as a guarantee for rights of each party, the maintenance of their rights and to ensure the proper compensation in case if a dispute arises upon the completion of the project. Our team of legal consultants provides some guidance to be followed by the contractors, owners, and consultants:

• To Notify the construction team working on the construction project management of the necessity of sending all the excuses and reasons for the delay on the same day by email supporting with pictures or videos to be an argument if the owner decided to claim delay later after the completion of the project or if he decided to resort to courts.
• To Regulate the mechanisms of notifications with the owner if any disruption of work arises such as due to the delay in granting building permits, or any change in the requirements of the government agencies, requesting re-making new amendments or designs. or reasons for the delay in obtaining the license on time must be conveyed to owner on right time to avoid any default.
• To Notify the owner periodically of the reasons for the delay, by sending the supporting images, and sometimes, including photos of repairs on the road leading to the hold in construction, photos of the road shutdown due to rains and floods or photos of paving works and road repairs in the case of denying the contractor access to the construction site.
• In case of accepting carrying out additional work on the behalf of the owner or the consultant, the owner and the consultant shall be notified of such matters. Constructor should also state that concern owner or consultant must provide such assistance in carrying out additional tasks due to the impossibility of their execution by the owner. Must keep in mind that such tasks may not be included within the scope of the contractor’s duties to ensure exemption from delay in case of non-completion, unless such tasks were paid, and the contractor is obliged to do it under an agreement.
• Contractor should always make sure to send periodic reports that are provided with photos to the owner or the consultant regarding the completion ratios and their status. Hence, this can be used as an argument in case if the owner or the consultant claimed you delay in completion ratios is proportion with the work carried out by the contractor.
• You should always notify the owner that delays in the payments will lead to delays in work and reduce labor and lead to the inability to provide materials. However, if the payments were made on time, things shall be different. Such matters shall be notified during the execution of the project and not after the completion of the project.
• Other matters depending on the progress of the project.

• Instructing contractors on the necessity of making a list of all unjustified delays and irregularities, in addition to requesting the contractor to provide all the necessary guarantees for the timely execution of works for this to be used as an argument if the dispute arises after the completion of the project.
• The necessity of agreement between the owner and the contractor or the permissible additional periods granted to the contractor in case of any delays in approvals, payments or facilitating the process of access to the site by the owner. This aims at ensuring the determination of permissible delays during the construction period.
• Obtaining the approval of the contractor to the objections or requesting a statement of reasons for the delay at each stage of estimating the percentage of completion, in order to prove the rights of the owner and not to dispute the percentages of completion later.
• Other matters according to the progress of the project.

Our Law firm believes in resolving the dispute amicably by opting dispute resolution methods. Our team of experts have extensive experience in resolving dispute which arises in construction contracts. It is widely known to everyone that Dubai is a home of cosmopolitan nationalities and in case if any dispute arises, having recourse to litigation will not be fruitful. Thus, our law firm provides best mechanism for dispute resolution in construction contracts.

In case if the dispute cannot be resolved amicably between the parties after the completion of the project, our team of construction lawyers at NA-Lawyerss Law Firm, specializes in representing our clients in such construction litigation disputes, with the assistance of a team of engineers and experts to consider technical aspects and prepare technical reports in proportion to the size of the project and the claim. This is done to ensure the presence of engineering experts or technical consultation reports by the client to support his position before the courts and construction and engineering expert committees that may be assigned by the court.

NA-Lawyerss Law Firm, works in harmony with a team of engineering consultants who are specialized in construction and engineering-related lawsuits to prepare consultancy reports and construction claims, taking into consideration both the technical and the legal aspects.

In a nutshell, you can always make use of our legal services in construction-related lawsuits/litigation and in managing relations with the other parties in construction disputes.