George C Urbino Urbino Home Improvements Urbino Home Improvements and Sons Bumble Bee construction Poor workmanship, charging for jobs not completed, causes additional damage, scam artist Buffalo New York

In 2009 I hired George Urbino to do some roof repairs and siding repairs caused by a wind/ice storm. Initially I paid George half of the total estimate which was what he required prior to starting the job. ( My exact figures may be slightly off because unfortunately I do not have my paperwork available right now.)

I gave him approximately $7,500 to start the job.  George and his “Crew” showed up at my house the first 2 days on time and appeared to be working to remove my old roof and siding.  On day 3 George contacted me at work stating he needed to replace a bunch of wood behind my existing siding due to rotted wood and needed me to get money to him immediately so he could purchase the supplies needed.  I did inquire what happened to all the money I gave him 2 days ago and he stated he had to pay his employees.  I immediately left work and went to the bank to get him cash as that is what he needed because a check would not clear right away.....  This exact scenario occurred 3-4 more times throughout the job.  On 1 particular evening there was a threat of rain and I asked George about covering the roof with tarps and he felt is wasn’t necessary.  At approximately 10pm that night it began down pouring and water began leaking into my living room which was NEVER part of the original damage.  After contacting George he came over and saw exactly how much damage was actually done from the open roof.  George went to Home Depot and purchased as many tarps as he could (of course with my money).  Then after covering the roof he proceeded to tear down the dry wall work that he did that day to repair the water damage in my family room....  The list of things that continued to occur throughout his time on the job ended up costing me well over $25,000 for a job he estimated at $15,000 total.....  

After the first 5 days on the job George himself no longer showed up on time, left early and he even stiffed all together on some days.  The job that was originally supposed to take a total of 2 weeks ended up taking him over 6 weeks.  On the weekend after the 6th week George was going out of town and requested I pay him the remainder of the balance owed to him because the last coat of paint was being completed that day.  I gave him a check for $5,000 and asked him to not cash it until the insurance check cleared and I would call him as soon as it did.  While inspecting the last employees final coat I was upset because the job was so poorly done.  I contacted my bank and placed a stop payment on the check because George was not returning my phone calls which I told him how unhappy I was with his work.  George finally returned my call once he attempted to cash my check and discovered I had placed a stop payment on it.  When I explained to George how upset I was he became very nasty and verbally threatening me over the phone.  At this point I hung up the phone and refused to answer any of his calls.  I did text him and ask him to have an employee come pick up the remainder of his things on my property.  Approximately 1 week later I had Cheektowaga detectives at my house to search my property because George filled a complaint that I stole several thousand dollars worth of tools.  The detectives obviously searched and found nothing that George accused me of stealing.  Than I received a summons for small claims court for the $5,000 check and the tools he claimed I stole.  I hired a home inspector to look at the work that George completed and based on his opinion of the work completed I hired an attorney and filed a counterclaim to get my money back.  

We did end up going to Civil court and an arbitrator awarded myself a judgement which I have not been able to collect anything to this date.  George Urbino is a scam artist promising work to be completed and his is very unprofessional and has poor workmanship.  George takes advantage of people and makes up injuries and stories that require more money to fix things that in my opinion were either made up or mistakes he made (for example the damage when he left my roof open knowing the forecast was for rain).I am hopeful the George will finally be held accountable for his actions as he will never stop until this happens.  He just changes his DBA and hides the money he makes making it impossible to recover any money awarded in lawsuits.