CBC spoke to four people who all confirmed they hired Serge Yasmine of BMX Renovations, a Gatineau, Que., company, to install in-ground pools at their properties during the pandemic. Three agreed to share their stories.
They all said they signed contracts with Yasmine after someone they knew introduced him, paid tens of thousands of dollars in deposits, equipment and labor, and in each case the project was never completed.
Two of the homeowners CBC spoke to have sued Yasmine, and the contractor has also been charged by Ottawa police with making death threats to one of his clients.
Jasmine has repeatedly ignored the CBC’s requests for an interview, but in a series of text messages, she blamed the pandemic and inflation for delays in completing the projects she was hired for.
The view of the backyard from Tyler Bruce’s Greely, Ont., home. He says his yard looked like this for months after he hired contractor Serge Yasmine to install a pool. The job was only supposed to take a few weeks. (Submitted by Tyler Bruce)
Promises, money paid
Tyler Bruce looks at his unfinished pool in the backyard of his newly built home in Greely, on the south end of Ottawa. It is a job that should have been done by now and by Yasmin. In February 2021, Bruce met with Yasmine for a consultation. “He promised us he would go, and those were his words, not mine, ‘make our backyard dreams come true,’” Bruce recalled. The couple signed a $70,000 contract with Jasmine and paid a $20,000 down payment to cover all pool materials. Work was due to start in August and be completed in about six weeks. WATCHES | Tyler Bruce hired Serge Yasmine to install a pool at his Greely home:
Greely homeowner describes ‘stressful’ experience with pool contractor
Tyler Bruce, who hired Serge Yasmine to install a pool at his Greely home, says he parted ways with the contractor after several delays and is now stuck paying “six figures” to get the job done. A year earlier, about 10 miles away in Manotick, Khalid Amr had also hired the contractor to install a swimming pool. He signed a contract with Jasmine for $48,000 and immediately paid an advance of $15,000. The work was expected to start in July 2020 and Amr promised that it would be finished by the end of August of that year at the latest. “This was a horror story,” said Richard Brandt, who says he had a similar experience. Having already hired someone to landscape their yard, Brant and his wife were looking to install a pool for the summer of 2021. Having seen several of his neighbors hire BMX Renovations, Brant said he signed a standard $46,000 contract for a three-week installation job to begin in July. He also paid a $15,000 deposit and then another $12,500 for supplies. Serge Yasmine is the owner of BMX Renovations, the company that three homeowners say they hired to renovate their yards and install in-ground pools. (Serge Yasmin/Facebook)
Delays and excuses
It didn’t take long for the alarm bells to ring. As work began, all three customers said progress was slow. Sods were torn up, trees were uprooted, holes were dug, and concrete was finally poured, but over a period of several months instead of the promised few weeks. When asked about the timeline, “the contractor would go dark for weeks. He would promise everything. Day after day, for months, he would say, ‘I’m on my way there now.’ Then always something,” Bruce said. “I was on him constantly, constantly, constantly,” Brad said. Everything from equipment malfunctions, a death in the family or medical appointments, Bruce said there was “always an excuse, never a delivery.” The CBC reviewed hundreds of text messages exchanged between Brant and Yasmine from November 2020 to October 2021, which show at least 30 instances in which work, equipment or communication was promised and then reneged on by Yasmine. WATCHES | Richard Brant says the pool contractor left them high and dry:
‘Wasted time and wasted effort’: Resident says pool contractor left them high and dry
Richard Brant says Serge Yasmine of BMX Renovations was not often on site to oversee the installation of a pool he had agreed to build. In a series of text messages, Yasmin blamed the pandemic and inflation for delays in the completion of several projects.
More money is wanted
Bruce, Amr, and Brad asked the contractor for more money, even with most of the work already underway. Jasmine told them she had to pay the suppliers.
Amr paid an additional $15,000, followed by another request for $5,000. Brad was asked for $5,000 in cash the first hour Jasmine started working on his home.
Bruce also made additional payments, as did the others, believing he was prepaying suppliers for necessary equipment.
But much of the equipment never appeared. The contractor blamed the delays on the pandemic, customers and suppliers.
In an exchange of text messages, Brant tells Yasmine that he is nervous about being asked for more money so early in the project.
“If you have trust issues, I’d rather we go our separate ways now because it’s only going to get worse from here,” Jasmine wrote. “I’ve got a $100,000 bobcat sitting on your property. You think I’m going to [take] the money and run?”
Richard Brant hired Serge Yasmine to renovate his backyard and install a pool last year. He ended up having to hire another company to finish the job. (Francis Ferland/CBC)
Complaints about withholding refunds, making threats
But despite assurances, months into the job it became clear to Bruce, Amr and Brant that they had to terminate their contracts with Yasmine. Winter was approaching and Brad was left with a mud pit full of water and frogs. Bruce, who expected the pool to be finished by the end of summer last year, waited all winter and this spring. He and his fiance had plans to have their backyard wedding reception in June, which they had to cancel. Both he and Amr’s courts are not yet fully completed. Brad hired a different company to finish his pool late last year. All of them are still waiting for refunds for Yasmin’s unfinished project. Bruce asked for $25,000, Brad said he was owed about $10,000, and Amr said he was owed about $20,000. They threatened legal action. Yasmin reportedly retaliated with threats of her own. Earlier this year, she was charged by Ottawa police with making death threats after leaving a voicemail on Brad’s phone. The CBC reviewed the voicemail. It contained only one word that sounded like “dead”. After refusing to pay him any more money, Yasmin also placed a lien on Amr’s house, which Amr has since removed. Khalid Amr says Yasmine owes him about $20,000 for the unfinished work he paid for. (Zoom)
Jasmine answers
When the CBC requested an interview with Yasmine via text message, she responded by saying “BMX Renovations unfortunately suffered huge financial losses last year and has not recovered since.” He said his company is currently being dissolved. “It’s unfortunate for some customers that we haven’t been able to recover financially. Add inflation and all the material shortages and customers refusing to pay for some jobs, we haven’t been able to sustain our business,” Yasmin wrote. He would not agree to an interview. “I will refer this matter to the Ottawa Police Service and defer to their position. As for any allegations, the media is not the appropriate forum to pursue or address these allegations, some of which are as far back as two years,” Yasmine wrote in a recent text to CBC. Richard Brant says this is the extent of the work Yasmine completed, months after the job. (Submitted by Richard Brant)
Moving on
Bruce, Amr and Brad all had to hire other contractors to get the job done. Bruce said he completed some of the work himself, building a shed that he had hired Jasmine to build. A new company was hired to finish his pool and landscaping. He estimates he spent more than $100,000 on the whole ordeal. “When you work on something and you pay someone to do it and then you have to do it yourself, it’s very frustrating, right? It’s a bit frustrating and you lose a lot of trust in a lot of people,” he said. Amr said he spent an additional $30,000 on top of what he paid Yasmine for another contractor to work on his pool. “I just let it go and try to do what I can to make amends,” he said. Brad continued to try to get his money back from Jasmine. After several messages and calls to the contractor, the police warned him not to harass the contractor. “I tried to go with a reputable company, but because I wanted to have the pool sooner rather than later, I went with someone, let’s say less reputable, that I didn’t have that proven track record with,” he said. Amr says the electrical work Yasmine did on his pool was poorly done and incomplete. (Submitted by Khalid Amr)
