Family business concreter Jakob Morati defends unfinished work claims
A concreter running a 50-year-old family business that was once fined $60,000 by the Office of Fair Trade has allegedly left another customer emptyhanded.
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An angry Bay islands resident left with an unfinished building job claims he has been left $5300 out of pocket by a southeast concreter with a track record of not finishing work.
Drew Marriani said he was in the process of building a home on Karragarra Island off Redland Bay.
Mr Marriani said he met concreter Jakob Moratti last year at Surfers Paradise and on March 12 that year he gave Mr Marriani a quote for the delivery of reinforcing fabric and mesh for concreting work on his Karragarra Island home.
The invoice included a mesh order, placement and delivery for the complete order of Marriani’s house slab.
“He quoted me $5300 to buy the reinforcing fabric (reo) and I paid it off in instalments over a few weeks,” Mr Marriani said.
“He sent me a picture of two small reo that were the right thickness, but I pointed out that’s a fraction of what I ordered.
“He took $5300 and gave me $500 of product I couldn’t use.
“He sent me 15 sheets of top mesh. That’s the last I saw of him.”
Mr Marriani said he and Mr Moratti then exchanged a series of text messages for sometime afterwards.
He pushed for completion of his order and eventually a refund, but claimed he was met with what he alleged to be excuses.
He had not seen Mr Moratti since.
In a reply to Mr Marriani, Mr Moratti wrote: “Hi Drew, I’ve spoken with nobody.
“I’m not in a good place health-wise.
“I really can’t see us getting to your job any more.
“I’m just too sick to continue Drew.
“I’ll work out what the residual on that order was so we can get it returned to you ASAP.
“My concreting days are over now Drew.”
In response, Mr Marriani asked if Mr Moratti was still in the Gold Coast area, to which Mr Morati replied: “My home is now basically Robina Hospital.
“I keep avoiding the knife Drew.
“So it keeps flaring up. I’m so scared of the operation.”
A Department of Justice and Attorney-General spokesperson said that between 2014 and 2023 the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) conducted four investigations into Mr Moratti for alleged breaches of Australian Consumer Law.
“As a result of these investigations, Mr Moratti was taken to court by the OFT in 2019 and 2023,’’ the spokesperson said.
“He was ordered to pay a total $42,000 in fines and over $23,700 in compensation to affected consumers.
“Following our latest investigation in 2023, the OFT received several new consumer complaints about Mr Moratti.
“Since then, the OFT has not received any further complaints from consumers and is not currently investigating Mr Moratti.’’
When Quest Newspapers contacted Mr Moratti he said Mr Marriani would get his refund if he was “patient’’. He denied he was scamming any of his clients.
“Drew’s order, we got the money, one load of steel dropped off on the island, I did it cheap too,” Mr Moratti said.
“By the time I sent the second load to the island, we started running out of money.
“We’ve been a family business for 50 years and I’m the third generation.
“We lost the business in Covid and we’ve been getting a new business and name going.
“I have six guys that work for me. We’ve done 20 jobs a year for the last 30 years, that’s 6000 jobs.
“We look after people and we’re only out there to do the right thing.”
In 2019 in the Cleveland Magistrates Court, Mr Moratti pleaded guilty to one count of failing to supply services within a reasonable time under the Australia Consumer Law.
This was after an OFT investigation found an affected consumer deposited a total of $2600 into Mr Moratti’s bank account on the promise that Mr Morati would prepare a driveway and purchase concrete.
The court heard Mr Moratti dug up the site but the concrete was never poured as per the initial agreement.
A delivery of concrete was ordered and cancelled a total of nine times by Mr Moratti.
The affected consumer requested a full refund from Mr Moratti on two occasions.
Mr Moratti was fined $7000 but a conviction was not recorded.
Then, in April 2021, the QBCC issued a public warning about Mr Moratti, telling the public he was an unlicensed concreter operating in Brisbane, Ipswich and the Gold Coast.
The QBCC also confirmed Mr Moratti had never held any QBCC licences.
“The QBCC is urging consumers, contractors and suppliers to be cautious in their dealings with Mr Moratti and his businesses, which include Italia Concrete Services QLD, Jake Moratti Concreting, Jake Moratti and Romacrete,” the QBCC wrote in a public statement.
“Mr Moratti does not hold a QBCC licence and is not able to carry out, advertise for, or enter into contracts to carry out building work in Queensland valued at more than $3300.
“He is also alleged to have taken deposits that exceed the maximum allowed under the QBCC Act and has either failed to complete work, or failed to commence work.”
But, when asked about the QBCC warning, Mr Moratti said he merely did not renew his licence.
“I was supposed to go to court (Cleveland Magistrates Court) and I would’ve won it had I turned up,” Mr Moratti said.
“That was due to an annoying Indian client, that guy had a lot of issues and drove everyone crazy.
“I had a bad bowel that kept flaring up, so they had to operate on it.
“We’re a five-star rated business.”
But Mr Moratti was also involved in a QCAT tribunal hearing on December 22, 2021.
Jacob Anthony Morati t/as Italia Concrete Services QLD, was named as the respondent against the applicant Renee Volck.
The tribunal ordered Italia Concrete Services pay Ms Volck $5345.80.
In this case the court heard Ms Volck engaged Italia to construct a concrete slab for a spa bath at Daisy Hill.
Italia was paid $3300 in cash on completion of the work in November, 2019.
Ms Volck alleged Italia’s work was defective, with large cracks in the slab which exceeded QBCC’s standards and did not meet a reasonable standard of construction or finish.
“The respondent was directed to rectify the work under section 72 of the Queensland Building and Construction Commission Act 1991 (Qld), but failed to do so,” the court heard.
“The respondent has failed to comply with the directions of the tribunal, first made on November 12, 2020 and repeated on May 26, 2021.
“He was put on notice that if he failed to comply with the directions on May 26, 2021 the tribunal will make a final decision in favour of Renee Volck, conditional upon an assessment of damages.”
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