Diagnosis of functioning incidences from judicial claims in building installations in Spain

Building facilities are an important part of construction, given that they interact with the rest of the building and may generate complaints from and dissatisfaction among the users, with subsequent litigation in courts. Expert reports used during judicial processes resulting from user complaints constitute an original source of knowledge on incidences in facilities. This article analyses the anomalies detected in 15 different types of installations from a total of 496 buildings under study, in which judicial claims were filed between 2008 and 2010, in Spain. In total, 854 incidences were found. The material damages and causes and consequences were analysed. These incidences were categorised qualitatively and quantitatively, and the most recurrent situations were studied. Through statistical analysis, the building typology, climate and location with the greatest likelihood of manifesting problems in each facility were determined, as well as the complaint risk factor per facility. It was also detected that most of the incidences (41.34%) were caused by lack of water-tightness in the facilities. With this information, technicians will be able to detect the most conflicting points and reduce failures in the execution of their projects, thus improving building construction quality.