Complaint Review: Mitchell Lucas - North Vancouver, British Columbia

Our experience with Northshore Design Centre/Northshore Bathrooms and Flooring/MLD Signature Renovations/Mitchell Lucas started out with lots of big plans, guarantees and promises made by Mitchell Lucas but turned into a nightmare. We specifically wanted someone to do the overseeing of our renovation and were prepared to pay for that service as the house being renovated is on the Sunshine Coast and we were living in Greater Vancouver at the time.

After 27 weeks of a proposed 8-10 week renovation, having paid $106,000 to Mitchell Lucas and Northshore Design Centre, the 3 major areas of renovation were not complete and there are deficiencies in every room of the house left from the renovation. No shower glass, no bathroom hardware; an unfinished IKEA kitchen, 25% of which we’ve had to supply, install or reinstall ourselves; flooring in two rooms not done; no doors on our bedroom that is open to the living room and windows facing to the street (because we said no to doors that were too short and too wide for the opening); transitions on top of stairs and from master bath to bedroom not supplied or installed; the carpet his workman installed on the stairs we’ve had to have replaced due to shoddy workmanship; we’ve had to pay an extra $2,000 for the completion of the painting of the house on top of the $5,400 we already paid Mitchell to have the house completely painted, inclusive of repainting with finishing paint as the paint Mitchell had supplied to the previous painter for the majority of the house was in fact ceiling paint, plus repainting all bathrooms using paint specifically for the dampness in bathrooms, not previously used.

The only changes we made during the renovation were at Mitchell’s suggestion, except for asking for 2 bedside lights we wanted to be hardwired in and the type of sink we wanted for the kitchen that was the same size as what we had previously chosen, but he now states that we made too many changes that caused the workmen to dislike us.

3 of the 5 sub-contractors (that we are aware of) who worked on our renovation refuse to work with Mitchell and any company he is part of but all the trades have been willing to work for us, at times for free or at a reduced rate, to help us get our home where it should be. I think that speaks for itself.

16 weeks after we moved in Mitchell and his trades having been here a total of 9 days only, when we questioned the renovation not being finished, he blamed us for expecting too much and not understanding renovations, even though months went by without one workman being sent here to bring the reno even close to completion.

Mitchell’s MO - proven by many repeated instances - is to promise what he can’t or has no intention of delivering to get your money; to abandon a task when he comes up against a problem that requires some thought or problem-solving skill to resolve; not to answer client communications and questions and then to blame the client for communicating too frequently; to take zero responsibility for anything that goes wrong with the renovation, passing the blame to everyone else... his employees, his trades, his suppliers, his tools, his supplies, his clients; to contradict his own lies; and to deliver shoddy and unfinished work requiring finishing, repair or redoing. Even his own trades who worked on our job told us we did not get what we paid for.

Mitchell became very personally insulting in his communication with us, using foul expressions and language and speaking rudely to me in front of workers and to my spouse about me.

Not once did he send a text, email or document within the timeframe he promised, sometimes not at all. We asked for budget updates throughout which were never provided and he has still not sent us the warranties he promised he would. After spending that kind of money, actually our life savings, we have an unfinished renovation with nothing and no-one to go to should there be any further issues with anything installed - e.g., unsealed tiles in the bathroom. The new owner of the North Shore Design Centre, Theepan, even though he has seen the state of our renovation in person and in photos, doesn’t seem to understand what our issue is.

We have no doubt Mitchell will answer our review with denial, lies and by blaming others, but even he admitted in final discussions that he had dropped the ball and lost focus on our renovation and that it suffered for it. Admitted it, but still kept monies for supplies and services not completed.

We urge you that you do more research than we did, and you can then decide if you want to take the risk of hiring Mitchell Lucas or Northshore Design/Northshore Bathrooms and Flooring/MLD Signature Renovations. Research on his past business record, in Vancouver and Calgary, court cases and reviews on all sites available. He MIGHT be good for one straightforward bathroom renovation, thus some good reviews, but definitely nothing more complicated than that, and even then, you definitely are not guaranteed. Many of the posted positive are from people who previously worked for him.