We DO NOT recommend Marko or Urbanest Construction for your home renovation needs.
Unfortunately, we had the displeasure of signing a contract with Marko and were very dissatisfied with our dealings with him and his company. He is not well respected within his industry and does not keep his promises or honour his end of the contract.
We received a quote from Marko at the end of January 2021 (which was 10 months into the Covid Pandemic). He advised it would take 3 months to complete the renovation project. We expressed our concern and weariness with dealing with contractors because of the horror stories we heard while watching Mike Holmes programs. He advised Mike Holmes gives contractors bad names but unfortunately, a contractor like Marko is exactly what Mike Holmes warned us about.
In February 2021, 11 months into the Covid pandemic, Marko sent his team to start the demolition of our main floor. The Demo was on time, and we firmed up our design with the designing team. During this time, our main floor was off limits without a kitchen sink. We were preparing our meals in our bedroom with a toaster and microwave oven. I was working from home and overheard contractors complaining about Marko. With their discussions, I immediately realize he is not well respected by his team.
In March of 2021, Marko started to pull no shows and gave many excuses as to why he would not be able to make it to our location. We started to notice that the only time he would arrive at our home was when payments were due.
April of 2021, 13 months into Covid: Marko advised that we need to pay up front for the Kitchen Cabinets. Marko advised this would keep us ahead of other customers so our cabinets would not be delayed. During this time the Cabinet Makers came in to take measurements. Marko advised they were on time and will be ready in a few weeks.
May 2021, 14 months into Covid: Marko continues to pull no shows at our location. He offers excuses after excuses as to why the project is not being worked on or even close to being complete. 4 months into our project, we are still without a kitchen sink. I expressed my concern and asked for a temporary sink which he agreed to install. He never installed one. Our marriage begins to become strained because we realize that most of our money is gone but the project is nowhere near completion.
June 2021, 15 months into Covid: Excuses mount. Contractors begin to show up but have no idea where Marko is. We still do not have a sink. Our main floor is still bare to the studs. Marko advises he is caught off guard with delays due to Covid. At this time 2 homes are being built from scratch down our street and are nearly complete.
June 17 2021: Marko gets into a yelling match with one of his contractors. The contractor was furious because when he showed up, he was waiting on Marko to arrive so he could get direction and tools to start the job. This contractor was at our home pacing and waiting for him for over 4 hours. He commuted from Mississauga only to wait on his boss. My son was online with remote learning. I had to close his windows because the profanities and yelling was getting out of control. His contractor was furious because he was not being paid by Marko. This contractor quits on the spot and tells him he “is a joke and you can talk to your customers like they don't know what's going on and not tell them the truth but don’t do that with me. I know exactly what you are about.” I couldn’t believe Mr. Furlani would be so unprofessional that he would have an argument on our front porch. They were screaming at each other, using profanities and having no regard of his customers or the neighbours.
July 2021, 16 months into Covid: I started to receive phone calls from various contractors asking for pay. This made me very nervous because at this time we gave Marko all but one payment (which was a BIG mistake on our part). Marko was to take care of paying all contractors. The only person I was to pay was Marko/Urbanest Construction. The contractors were advising that Mr. Furlani told them that I never paid him which is NOT TRUE. I have proof with my cashed cheques that he was paid on time. At this point I realized we were in a bad situation and figured out that we were dealing with a dishonest individual. We start to see Marko once ever few weeks if we were lucky. There is absolutely NO PROGRESS at all up to this point. We still do not have a sink after he promised he would install a temporary one. I approached Marko with the fact that I was getting phone calls from contractors, and he said he paid them and had no idea why they would be contacting me. Since I started to get very nervous, I did some research and found the Cabinet Makers phone number. I contacted him and he advised that he was never paid and didn’t even START our cabinets. We were devastated to say the least. I confirmed all our suspicions and fears and realized we were taken for fools. I approached Marko with my concerns. Marko advised that I had “No right to talk to his workers and he “forbids me to contact anyone.” I found this suspicious and infuriating. I couldn’t believe he would talk to a paying customer like this. We were so far with payments that my husband and I were nervous that he would walk away with all of our money.
August 2021, 17 months into Covid: We finally get our sink after numerous requests and excuses from Marko. He would always have an excuse when we asked for one with, “next week…next week”. Just to clarify, this new sink was NOT a temporary one. It was our permanent kitchen sink.
September, 18 months into Covid: We FINALLY have our kitchen cabinets installed. We were told by the Cabinet Maker that Marko has been avoiding everyone with pay including him. He advised that the quartz counter company wouldn’t release our counter tops to Marko because he owed them money from a previous job. I did some more research and found out from our central vac installer that Marko sent him to a job that is in the same predicament as us! Seems as though he is getting money from one job to pay the previous job that he didn’t complete.
I approached Marko once again. At this point, we did not have our fireplace or entertainment unit completed. Painting was not completed. Our window was not installed (Marko installed it incorrectly which caused water damage and rodents to get into our home. We needed to have that damage repaired thanks to his incompetence). Marko advised that there were delays after delays. I was fed up with his excuses that I told him I wanted my money back from the services not rendered. He advised he couldn’t do that. He said he didn’t have the money anymore. When I questioned where my money went, he didn’t have an answer. He became very confrontational and said that he misquoted me. I advised that it was not my fault if he misquoted us. “A professional would know how to quote a job”. I explained that he had a legal obligation fulfill the contract. His reply was "Well I guess I will need to fold up shop and claim bankruptcy.” I was furious. This individual who claimed to be a “professional” just threatened to claim bankruptcy after I paid him in full against our better judgement! He made promises after promises! I believed him and trusted HIM! He basically made a fool of me and my husband. HE took our money and ran. I asked him to leave my home. He refused to! I told him he took our hard-earned money and squandered it without giving us what we paid him for. His response was, “I’m here, aren’t I?” I didn’t understand what he was trying to say at first but I think he was implying that because he was here, I should be happy. Well, all I have to say Marko is, we would have been happy if you would have fulfilled your contract and completed the job in 3-or-5-months tops (considering delays). Your sneaky dealings were not appreciated. Arriving at a job sight and swinging a hammer once in a while is not progress!
Ultimately, my husband fired him at the end of September. He asked him to return our money (which he did not). We were left to finish the job ourselves. He left our marriage in shambles; our finances are strained, and we were left looking like fools for believing a smooth talker who had answers for everything and believes his own tales..
We needed to have our experiences heard so we could sleep better at night. We wanted everyone to know what it is like dealing with Marko and Urbanest Construction. We do not want another family to have to live through the stress and deceit we have had to deal with. He has been reported to the City of Hamilton and to Reno-Assist (where we found him). We are out of $7-10k and are still needing to get more contractors to complete a project he agreed to complete in 3 months. Covid excuses can only go so far when 2 homes were completed from scratch in under a year before our kitchen was.
Be very wary of signing on with Marko and Urbanest Construction. As you can see, this has been a nightmare for us from the beginning.
We are still waiting for our refund for services not rendered!
****Feb 2022 update- We have had to spend and additional $10,000 to have the project completed and to date, we have not received a reimbursement! He was well aware that we wanted our money back for services not rendered! Both my husband and I asked for it on separate occasions*****
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