My Trusted Builder

We had a terrible experience with Ion Mocanu and Alexandr Vreme from My Trusted Builder. They run a very slick operation, but everything it's fake about them. There is no office in central London, the pictures on their website are stock phots and they hire actors for their videos. They claim their company is registered with Trademark, a government endorsed scheme for builders. Sadly, this is not true. They seem to have a bunch of positive reviews online, all written in autumn 2019. A few years into our refurbishment and issues keep cropping up. We contacted Mr Mocanu and Mr Vreme to no avail. Vreme has moved on, supposedly to run a life coach business. Ion is still a director. Check out their documents on Company House. They claim they run a thriving business, this is contradicted by their tax returns.

We undertook our first ever building project on our first ever home with My Trusted Builder. We could not have been more pleased with the care, attention and quality of work they carried out for us. It was a huge project consisting of a entire gut of a victorian home with an extension and loft. The quality and timeliness of the delivery was outstanding, and they helped us through all the decision making at every stage, even when problems arose. We felt supported throughout and the trust was there 100%. I can't recommend My Trusted Builder enough!

We used Mytrustedbuilder for a loft conversion and kitchen extension. We were very happy with the service provided. Alex kept in contact throughout the project and communicated with us well. We were very pleased with the quality of workmanship and the finish. We would happily use them again.

I couldn’t speak higher of Alex and his team, and the work they put into my property. They’ve taken my run down terraced property and turned it into my dream home. Every step of the way they were helpful, attentive, and unbelievably accommodating. I was working to tight timelines, and even with all the unexpected changes that come with a Victorian terrace (my rear wall turned out to have no foundations and was built on mud, which required substantially more work!), they managed to finish within the discussed timeframe, and to an exceptional quality. Having relative strangers come into your home is a difficult part of the process no one really acknowledges, but Alex’s team were polite, welcoming and helpful every step of the way. I brought in a few specialist vendors (glass roof and kitchen from wren), and all my difficulties came from them, rather than My Home Builder. In fact, when I had difficult tradespeople in, Alex’s team were there to support, even stepping in to guide and assist when it wasn’t their responsibility. More importantly, they were there and happy to share a few beers with me when I wanted to sit on site at the end of the week and reflect on the work they’d done! We even had a makeshift BBQ one weekend when summer finally arrived. Overall I couldn’t sing their praises high enough, and have recommended them to all my friends doing similar work. Alex is a committed and creative individual, who I would now consider a good friend. He has a fantastic team who are happy to support in any way they can any hour of the day! Sam

Alex and co created a new extension for my home 3 years ago, which was built to a high spec and I was very pleased with the service and the quality of work. I recently noticed a water stain on the ceiling and they came back immediately to resolve free of charge. Very please with the after care service offered, so wanted to share.

My trusted builder spent 12 months rebuilding my house in a very substantial refurbishment. The house was completely hollowed out, the garage was converted into living space, the loft was converted into a bedroom and a conservatory was added to accommodate the kitchen. All floors were rebuilt from the ground floor up to the 4th floor. The workman ship was of the highest order and I was absolutely delighted with the end result. At all times the team were courteous and no demand was too much for them. The build was very well project managed throughout and even though building control threw up many problems they were all overcome. I would wholeheartedly recommend this firm.

Alex and the team were incredible they explained and outlined all cost clearly and the kitchen extention was finished to a high standard nothing was too much trouble and we were living the house at the time and the team were respectful of our space. We're on site early morning and working hard into the evening. I would highly recommend.

MYTRUSTEDBUILDER? EMPHATICALLY CANNOT BE TRUSTED. This company has just given us the worst mentally and emotionally draining experience we have ever had. DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT USING THEM. They are incompetent and if we had not kept our eyes open we would probably now be looking at subsidence of part of our house. They have given us the worst brickwork we have ever seen, carried out by men who were willing to work long hours but whose ability is sadly lacking, especially without knowledgeable supervision. The company estimator and contract procurer, Sean Burke, promised us brickies who were the “best in the business” and who would be supervised by the manager Karl Mclean. Little did we realise how dishonest was Burke. He clearly set out to obtain our signature to the contract by telling us exactly what we wanted to hear irrespective of its truth. His estimating ability was also way out because shortly after the work started the men were called off and Mclean said that unless we signed a new contract, for more money of course, they would not return (having received a £10,000 non-refundable deposit). We had no option but to sign because the demolition that had been carried out meant we had no access to our front door! Mclean did not supervise but employed Catalin Gorgan who, Mclean said, is a qualified engineer (albeit qualified abroad) and would be on site full-time. Mclean later changed that to 90% of the time. In fact, Gorgan was around less than 50% of the time and spent most of that time in his car staring at his mobile ‘phone. Gorgan, described on the website as having a “thorough understanding of constructure”, was negligent, incompetent and ignorant. We discovered that he did not even know what clay is and certainly had no idea of its characteristics of shrinkage and cracking when allowed to dry out (which would have caused the subsidence). Amongst other examples of his incompetence, he provided a chemical to clean cement off new bricks, which damaged and discoloured them. Catalin Gorgan is a disaster waiting to happen. He also has his own company named Kotys Construction. Karl Mclean, as contracts manager, with “20 years of experience in the industry” inspected weekly telling us how important “quality control” is. Yet, when it came to the sub-standard brickwork – the vertical mortar joints are not in line and vary substantially in width (which makes a column wider at the top than it is lower down), the bricks are badly cut and chipped and some are not even horizontal – Mclean said that the workmanship was “of a good standard”. Beware of this man, he is devious and incompetent. He has even refused to refund money paid for thousands of pounds worth of work that was not done (one item was our structural engineer’s requirement that we have solid concrete steps but they put in suspended steps so saving money on concrete (which saving has not been passed on to us). To our mind this was fraud. The operations manager Alexandr Vreme according to the website has “understanding of every aspect of construction” but we have heard nothing from him nor from the managing director Ion Mocanu who “treats every project as his own” and has a vision that “builders can and should be trusted”. The work this company has produced and their attitude give the lie to the outlandish and dishonest claims on the company website. BEWARE and STEER WELL CLEAR OF THEM.