Left in a lurch by Urban Studio
Our experience was drastically different than the reviews here. We initially chose them based on their reviews on this site, of which we have discovered at least one is not quite accurate. In fact, we have since discovered that this business has changed it's name (used to be Solution Build Group Inc.) and there are in fact many bad reviews of Joseph (Yousef), you will see this name referenced in the other business names' review. https://homestars.com/companies/2811467-solution-build-group-inc
We hired them to do an entire gut and second storey addition and quite early in the project ran into several 'small' snags (i.e. things that were supposed to be added to the contract weren't even after asking several times, things they should have caught, they didn't - no HVAC quote in a total gut!?, the structural engineer they hired contacted us with an angry email refusing to provide drawings as Urban Studio hadn't paid them, Urban Studio's Project manager suddenly didn't work there when we contacted her and again we weren't informed by Urban Studio that she had moved on). These were just warning signs of what to were to come as within weeks of the project we were asked for a large amount of money to fix a basement wall, which we later fixed for a quarter of the price they quoted us. Finally when we asked for our own structural engineer to take on the project instead of theirs (as we were losing faith) it got progressively tense and difficult. We started to hear from urban Studio less and they stopped the demo despite having already having paid them in full for it. We finally sent an email in August requesting for them to finish what we had already paid them for in full ( the demo and waterproofing - the latter hadn't even been started!?) and we have not heard from them since. This company turned out to be extremely dishonest, it has been a horrific experience.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $250,000.00
- Company Response
Our company confirms that we were forced to proceed with cancellation of the contract with this client after the demolition phase, due to many reasons. But first and formal we would like to clarify that Urban Studio Inc. has never changed name and has never been called Solution build in the history of it's operating years! It’s very unfortunate to see that the homeowner is confused and clearly have wrong assumptions of our project manager Joseph being the owner of Urban Studio Inc. However, right about Joseph partially owning Solution build in his early days in which he experienced a bad partnership, not being able to deliver his standards he ended his partnership and closed down the business for so many years now while he started as a project manager at Urban Studio helping us for past few years achieving great success and leaving numerous satisfied customers.
As for Urban Studio's unique and different experience with this client it all started when the engineer who was assigned to the project proposed an option/alternative to resolve the structural issue their existing south foundation wall was facing due to water damage and not maintaining the house for years. We provided our detailed quote for the cost of all the additional work the engineer requested. However, The clients found are pricing expensive and wrote back “This is very expensive for some masonry worker as it’s only work with concrete blocks and mortar.” Homeowner then started to shop around and find a handyman for the job which should’ve be done by experienced trades while he put the entire agreement on hold! He then questioned the engineer and blamed him for not providing him with cost sufficient alternatives. Shockingly he then hired a family friend as an engineer with a lower price and asked me to get rid of the current engineer, He also refused to pay for the cost to our engineer Tony, even though he spent many hours and done 3 site visits. We tried to be sympathetic financial situation and agreed for them to have their family friend involved but the DISASTER only began when the new engineer couldn't prepare correct drawings in proper time and didn’t coordinate with the architect properly and cause 2 months delay that ruined the basis of our project time schedule. Our Architect (Michael) sent two emails on August 2nd, 2017 to owner, complaining about “endless negotiation with new engineer who is not listening to me.” We also warned about the extensive delay situation on our August 2nd email to the client which proof these facts.
As for the work at the job site we only got to finish the demolition task and we got paid for it after finishing as the payment was due to completion of work. They never paid us $1 extra as all the payments on the contract were based on mile stone payments and we never got to start the next phase of project due to delays their family friend engineer was causing by not providing the drawings! Not only we lost money on this project but they caused our company a great deal of inconvenience by even effecting our other timelines and we defiantly prefer to save our time and energy for the customers who need quality work, appreciate our expertise and have chosen us knowing what are they are paying for!