The concept of owner representation and the problems stemming from the lack of ıts application

Abstract

Although construction owners have numerous technical responsibilities in the process of planning a construction project and completing it on time along to the plan, the owners in our country, Turkey, have not developed a strong sense of receiving professional technical assistance. Therefore, they have remained very vulnerable against contractors who usually complete constructions in the country. On the other hand, owner representative service is commonly used in construction industry in order to provide technical support to the owners in developed countries. Therefore, this study aims at identifying the knowledge about owner representative service concept, its scope and, the reasons why it is not utilized in our country effectively. In this study, a survey was conducted for data collection, and participants consisted of owners, contractors and consulting firms. Frequency and percentage distribution techniques were used in the analysis of the survey results. Findings obtained from these analysis demonstrate that owners and contractors benefit from owner representative service at a very limited level, and the consulting firms utilize this service at a low level. In addition, the findings suggest that all parties are in agreement about the benefits of this service and the problems raising from the lack of its implementation. We hope that this study will contribute to the awareness of utilizing owner representative service in construction industry and sharpen the sense of owner representation service in our country.