Richard Haraszti

It was a terrible experience we had employing Richard for the renovation of our home. I wish I read all this information about him, we would have saved ourselves the headache we went through. He is just 100% as described in the previous reviews.

We engaged him to install baseboard/trims, remove floor panel shower and install new tub with tiles, paint, install floorings and treat basement. We had a contract in which he stated delivery in 3 weeks. We also noticed he is a smooth talker and brags about how he will go over and beyond without any result showing.

He disappeared from site for days coming up with excuses of different personal issues. We had made 75% to him as he was constantly asking for money. We needed to move into our home in about 4 weeks of contracting him, as we already gave our notice at our previous residence. This made us ensure we provided his payment and materials ahead.

Richard will over order materials for us to give him money to buy. We discovered in no time and resorted to buying our materials ourselves which made him become irate and verbally abusive on occasions. He had no staff and got two students whom he was training while on our job without him doing nothing, and disappears after about 2-3 hours. By the end of the 3 weeks, our home was worst than when he started renovating. He will dig up holes, break drywall, remove, mess up everywhere without marking any portion of the work done. He left our home with two large holes he opened on our living room ceiling. He could not deliver 40% of the job after 4 weeks and kept asking for fresh materials when the entire living room area was full of items that needed installation which he did not do. He abandoned our job after his student workers quit on him because he refused to pay them. One of his staff told us that his excuse was that we haven’t paid him. Luckily, we made all payments to him through our bank and we had proof.

He broke pipes and released sewage gas into our home for 3 days which could have caused fire but for professional intervention. It took him 3 weeks to install a bathroom tub and wall timing. I wonder how come he boast of over 40 years experience. He is very unprofessional, unorganized, not reliable, not honest at all. He would convert money meant for materials into his personal money and when we asked him, he got aggressive. He ended up abandoning the job without marking any aspect of the project complete.

I would strongly advice anyone not to deal with this man.

This was a nightmare experience! He initially as everyone else mentioned in the reviews is very pleasant, pretends he's going above and beyond. The quality of his work is awful!

Thats not even the worst part- he bought material on my credit card that wasn't for my property. When caught he completely denied it.

He was way over budget and was slowing down on the work. He would say he's working but not show up to the property. My dog passed away during the time of the renovation and I was dealing with that and he completely took advantage and kept asking me for more money. He makes up lies and stories about family members getting sick. He left the work incomplete and everything he did needs to be redone. He then just disappeared and has blocked all calls and messages from me. He stole over 30k and the work is no where close to being done. He is nice till you keep transferring him money and the moment you stop with him demanding money he makes up lies. He claimed there was mould in the air of the property to delay work and he was getting sick. I asked him to stop all work and did my due diligence getting it tested. The report came back negative there was never an issue. He does all sorts of things to delay the work. He would call screaming and yelling getting all emotional one moment and then the next moment he would call to apologize and ask for more money. He's not an honest person and comes across very sweet initially but thats how he scams people!

Upon further investigation we found out he keeps changing his company name when people catch on.

We are going to be reporting him for fraud and are discussing with our lawyer on suing for the money!

If anyone else is dealing with this situation and wants to contact me, feel free to 416-809-6272.

Also check out the other company names he worked under and you'll see the other reviews people left

This guy Richard Haraszti is a crook. He took money in advance by using sob stories of going through divorce and putting his daughter for dance classes. He is a con artists. He is now running a business under the name of Circa 1982 General Contracting and Niagara Region Contracting.

I hired him for 3 projects simultaneously. None were completed, took money and disappeared. He is very smooth with words but trust me he would fraud you 100%. Also be careful with the material. He would over order and if you are not careful the material will be missing. I usually dont write reviews but I have been through hell with this guy and I hope with my this post people will be careful.

Its too bad I did not read the review from this site, because if I did I will never make a mistake of hiring this scum bug of a contractor.

He change his business name to Richie's Renovations and possibly had change it again. He has also now moved to Font Hill Ontario.

I mee him several times before deciding to hire him to do the renovation at my house in St Catharine's Ontario. He said he has 20 something experience in renos and had experience being a general contractor. We had a signed contract and everything seems to go as planned. We paid him according to the contract, trusting that he has kept his side of the bargain, that is to complete the project and pay the sub trades. He then went on vacation, and when he comes back from his vacation, he was nowhere to be found, did not answer to emails and phone calls. To make matters worse, he did not pay one of the sub trade. The sub trade is now coming after me and I was forced to pay him or else he would put a lien on my house. Its been a nightmare. Please do not hire this man for anything. Stay Away from him.

"Client Beware" - Richard (also known under company name Clear Bay Construction) is of great concern, he is unable to finish work he starts, makes many mistakes, works very very slow and leaves leaves unexpected and you have no idea when he's coming back. On top of it, he can not be trusted in your home. I had to unfortunately involve the police, to which now he has become more vindictive. The police had to give him a warning after he made threats to me.

He collects GST but does submit to CRA (you can easily verify that through CRA).

Do yourself a huge favor and don't get involved with this individual. Nothing but problems after problems.

Please see other reviews for this person under Clear Bay Contracting.