The roofer is unlicensed and has slapped liens worth thousands on clients who don’t pay. His lawyers have told the state the complaints are misguided.
Exhausted from breast cancer treatment, 73-year-old Laurie Klein didn’t have the energy to ask questions when her neighbor picked out a contractor to replace the roof of the duplex they shared in a western Boynton Beach retirement community.
While Klein thought the $29,000 that Andre Baptiste wanted was a steep price to pay for her half of the roof, he told her he wasn’t just a roofing contractor, but also an insurance adjuster. He assured her he could convince her insurer to pick up the tab.
So Klein signed the contract and believed the leaky roof in her home in the Coral Lakes community off Jog Road was one problem she could check off her list.
Instead, like dozens of seniors who hired Baptiste, Klein’s problems were just beginning.
Not only wasn’t Baptiste a licensed insurance adjuster, but he also wasn’t a licensed contractor, either.
Using the license of a dead roofing contractor, one held by his ex-wife and another held by a Delray Beach-area man, Baptiste persuaded homeowners to hire his company, B and B Roofing and General Contracting, state records show. When he demanded extra money and they refused to pay, he slapped liens on their homes, often without telling them, records show.
Some who refused to hire him found themselves in expensive legal battles. Armed with papers the homeowners signed thinking they were only for insurance purposes, Baptiste sued them for breach of contract.“He chooses elderly people in retirement communities, and he intimidates them into submission,” Klein said.
Seniors file more than a dozen complaints against roofer
Klein is part of an informal group of seniors who joined forces to stop the 73-year-old Baptiste, who is barred from getting a contractor’s license because a 1995 arrest in Broward County for insurance fraud and grand theft turned him into a convicted felon.
Led by retired Miami police officer Carlos Noguera, who also hired Baptiste, the seniors have filed more than a dozen complaints against Baptiste with state and county licensing regulators. While the bulk of the cases are still awaiting final action, the agencies have levied $17,500 in fines against Baptiste and dismissed several cases.
Based on information gathered by state investigators, Baptiste also faces two misdemeanor charges in Palm Beach County for using someone else’s license. But those who say they have been victimized by him insist he should face more than a maximum year-long jail sentence and $1,000 fine.
“This man took hundreds of thousands of dollars from people,” Klein said. “This isn’t a pickpocket.”
Beyond unlicensed activity, Noguera said he has uncovered evidence that would justify far more serious charges.
Documents have been forged, according to complaints filed against Baptiste with the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation. Insurance companies have been billed exorbitant prices, residents claim.
“These are serious and egregious crimes that affected numerous homeowners, insurance companies and defrauded the building/permit department for years,” Noguera wrote in an email to State Attorney Dave Aronberg.
Roofer tells regulators suspicions about him are misguided
Noguera, who spent nearly 30 years working as a police officer and then a firefighter in Miami, has sent Aronberg hundreds of documents, detailing Baptiste’s tactics.
As required by Florida law, state regulators forwarded Aronberg the results of three completed reviews into allegations against Baptiste.
“Investigation disclosed that subject Andre Baptiste is acting as an unlicensed contractor committing financial harm to senior citizens as shown by this case and previous ones submitted,” state investigator Richard Robinson wrote in a letter to Aronberg’s office.
In the letters, Robinson also noted that Baptiste was a repeat offender and was continuing to work without a license. Under state law, repeat violators face a maximum five-year prison sentence and $5,000 fine.
Aronberg’s office declined to comment for this story, saying it doesn’t discuss pending cases.
While Baptiste and his attorneys didn’t return phone calls for comment, his lawyers have insisted that the seniors’ suspicions of illegal activity are misguided. It’s all a simple misunderstanding, attorney Frank Kessler explained to state regulators.
Baptiste didn’t know that his ex-wife in January 2018 notified the state agency that she would no longer serve as his “qualifier,” which allowed him to work under her license, Kessler wrote in response to some of the complaints filed against Baptiste.
“When (Baptiste) found out that she had discontinued her license as the qualifier for this company, (he) had no further business operations or transaction with using (her) license,” Kessler wrote.
However, documents show that didn’t stop Baptiste from continuing to ink contracts.
Instead of using his ex-wife’s license, he used one held by contractor Soo Liam Ooi, who died in 2014 after serving as Baptiste’s qualifier when he ran B & C Roofing. Baptiste also used the license of Julner Moise, the longtime owner of Vanguard Hammer Property Renovations just west of Delray Beach.
In a sworn statement, Moise said Baptiste used his license to pull permits for 29 roofing jobs without his knowledge.
“Vanguard never qualified B and B to operate under any of (my) licenses and I have never qualified B and B Roofing and General Contracting, Inc.,” he wrote in a July 2020 affidavit.
In an interview with state investigators, Baptiste called Moise a liar. He explained his use of the dead contractor as a mistake.
When confronted with his past during a deposition, the 73-year-old Baptiste downplayed his 1995 arrest for insurance fraud in Broward County and another one in Palm Beach County in 2013.
He blamed his conviction in Broward County on the attorney he hired after he said an insurer accused him of overstating the value of his BMW that was stolen and then totaled in a crash.
The 2013 arrest was equally dubious, Baptiste claimed, although it echoes some of the recent allegations that have been leveled against him.
He and a 76-year-old West Palm Beach woman were charged with insurance fraud after investigators said Baptiste convinced her to submit a $36,000 claim to replace her roof, even though another roofer said he fixed it for $275.
While Baptiste was also charged with working as an adjuster without a license, prosecutors pursued only the fraud charge. He ultimately pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of petit theft and paid $280 in court costs. The charge against the woman was dropped.
Baptiste acknowledged that he should have taken the arrest in Broward County more seriously. While he didn’t serve any jail time, he was ordered to spend nearly five years on probation. More importantly, it was a felony conviction. For nearly 30 years, it has prevented him from getting a roofing license.
“I had an immigration attorney fighting a criminal case, and that haunts me as of today,” he said.
‘No one puts a freaking lien on my mother’s house.’
Klein, who lives in New York and sporadically visits the patio home she inherited from her mother, said she would have never known that Baptiste wasn’t licensed if the project had gone smoothly.
Shortly after the new roof was installed in 2019, rainwater poured in, flooding the home. An apologetic Baptiste agreed to paint damaged walls and do some minor repairs, she said. Then, he sent her a bill for $4,500.
“You didn’t do anything extra,” she said she told him when he sent her the invoice. If she didn’t pay it and the remaining $12,000 she owed him for the roof, he said he would slap a lien on the house, she said.
While she had already paid him $17,000, she said the one for $4,500, coupled with the threat of a lien, was too much.
“This was my mother’s house. No one puts a freaking lien on my mother’s house,” said the retired educator, who worked as a school administrator and psychologist. “I was so furious about that $4,500. It was one drop too much.”
Klein said she asked a roofer to look at the work Baptiste had done. In addition to finding broken tiles and other problems, he had other disturbing news.
“This contract has a dead person’s license number on it,” Klein remembered him saying. “Your contract is with a man who died five years ago.”
County building records show Baptiste used Vanguard’s license to pull the permit to replace Klein’s roof. The licenses he listed on Klein’s contract belonged to Soo Liam Ooi, the late roofing contractor.
When Baptiste made good on his threats and sued Klein in 2020 to collect the $16,650 lien he had placed on her house, she used the evidence against him.
In July, County Judge Reginald Corlew threw out Baptiste’s lien. He also ordered Baptiste to pay the nearly $26,000 in attorney’s fees Klein racked up fighting the lien that her lawyer described as a “sham.”
While a complaint Klein filed against Baptiste with state regulators is still pending, county licensing officials slapped him with $5,000 in fines in connection with unlicensed work he did at her house. Her complaint to state officials prompted prosecutors In October 2020 to charge him with a misdemeanor count of using someone else’s license. A trial is scheduled for March 15.
Other Coral Lakes residents make similar consumer complaints to state, county
While battling Baptiste, Klein discovered she was not alone.
Others in the sprawling retirement community said they, too, had stories to tell about their dealings with Baptiste.
Bonita Kramer filed a complaint against Baptiste with state and county regulators after she discovered discrepancies on bills he sent to her insurance company.
Baptiste listed his ex-wife’s license on an August 2018 invoice, even though Roseline Duberceau-Baptiste had told state regulators seven months earlier that she would no longer serve as his qualifier. Baptiste had also sued his ex-wife a month earlier for breach of contract, claiming her decision to remove him from her license could cost him “in excess of $1 million” in pending contracts.
When Kramer further examined the invoice, she discovered he had billed the insurance company $31,500 to re-roof her side of the duplex. Based on conversations with neighbors, she had expected it to cost $16,000 to $18,000.
He also tacked on $5,763 for interior repairs, when all he did was paint small, water-stained areas of two ceilings, Kramer told state regulators. In all, Baptiste made $33,150, according to state records.
Like other seniors, Kramer told investigators she trusted Baptiste because he had done a lot of work in the neighborhood. The 79-year-old retired medical assistant from Long Island estimated he has worked on at least 75 homes in Coral Lakes.
“Kramer stated that Baptiste presents himself professionally at first, which is how he got her to be lenient initially,” investigators wrote in the report. “Kramer stated that she quickly learned he was ultimately just trying to get additional money from her insurance company at her expense.”
But, Kramer said that like Klein she was reeling from cancer surgery and radiation treatment. She also takes care of her disabled husband. When Baptiste offered to handle all the paperwork for her, it seemed like a simple job she could outsource.
“I had no idea he would be padding the bill,” she said.
Neither Baptiste nor his attorney responded to the state agency’s request for information about Kramer’s allegations, records show.
The agency in September 2020 found probable cause to believe Baptiste had engaged in unlicensed activity and filed a formal complaint against him. It and one Kramer filed against him with county licensing officials are still pending.
But, some homeowners said, they have been unable to seek help for the problems Baptiste caused them.
“I am truly an innocent victim,” said 69-year-old Lauren Wahl, who also lives in Coral Lakes.
Three years after she paid $18,000 to replace her half of the roof of the duplex, her neighbors in 2018 hired Baptiste to replace the tiles on their side, according to county building permits.
In the process, Baptiste’s crews ripped up part of her roof and didn’t replace it, Wahl said.
In October 2020, after weeks of rain, the ceiling in her Florida room collapsed. Repair crews discovered the inside walls were covered with mold from water that had been slowly dripping into her home.
In addition to paying thousands of dollars for repairs and mold removal, she had to pay $7,500 to repair her roof. Her insurer refused to pay for most of the costs, saying it doesn’t cover damages caused by someone who had permission to be on her roof.
Police and lawyers have told her they can’t help her because she has no paperwork linking her problems with Baptiste.
“I do not understand why he is allowed to continue to prey on elderly victims, allowed to roof with an invalid license, allowed to get away with this for years while adding victim after victim,” said Wahl.
One homeowner says trail of rejected claims cost her insurance policy, $70,000 in repairs
Like homeowners in Coral Lakes, residents of Sherbrooke Estates said they hired Baptiste because he had done work for neighbors. The fact that he lives in the community west of Florida’s Turnpike off Lantana Road boosted their confidence in him.
Cynthia Cochran, who retired early as a Miami-Dade County school administrator to care for her disabled husband, said she called Baptiste in April 2019 to repair a leak in a roof. She had met him at some homeowner association meetings and a neighbor told her he was a roofing contractor.
After his crews pulled up some of the tiles, leaving the roof exposed, he said the leak was caused by Hurricane Irma in 2017. With a three-year window to file claims for hurricane damages, he voiced confidence he could get her insurer to pay for it.
Her carrier rejected the first claim he filed because he used the license of the long dead Ooi, state investigators said. He drafted a second contract, using Moise’s license numbers and said it would cost $74,149 to replace Cochran’s roof. State investigators said Moise told them he wasn’t involved in the project.
After sending another roofer to Cochran’s house to inspect the damage, the insurer denied the claim, according to court documents.
It said there was no evidence of windstorm damage. Instead, it said 20 tiles had been cracked by people walking on them. The other problems were caused by normal wear and tear that weren’t covered by her policy.
Cochran, however, said the initial damage was caused by the hurricane. It was exacerbated because Baptiste left the roof exposed for months instead of returning to do the repairs. In addition to rejecting her claim, her insurance company canceled her policy, she said.
One homeowner says trail of rejected claims cost her insurance policy, $70,000 in repairs
Like homeowners in Coral Lakes, residents of Sherbrooke Estates said they hired Baptiste because he had done work for neighbors. The fact that he lives in the community west of Florida’s Turnpike off Lantana Road boosted their confidence in him.
Cynthia Cochran, who retired early as a Miami-Dade County school administrator to care for her disabled husband, said she called Baptiste in April 2019 to repair a leak in a roof. She had met him at some homeowner association meetings and a neighbor told her he was a roofing contractor.
After his crews pulled up some of the tiles, leaving the roof exposed, he said the leak was caused by Hurricane Irma in 2017. With a three-year window to file claims for hurricane damages, he voiced confidence he could get her insurer to pay for it.
Her carrier rejected the first claim he filed because he used the license of the long dead Ooi, state investigators said. He drafted a second contract, using Moise’s license numbers and said it would cost $74,149 to replace Cochran’s roof. State investigators said Moise told them he wasn’t involved in the project.
After sending another roofer to Cochran’s house to inspect the damage, the insurer denied the claim, according to court documents.
It said there was no evidence of windstorm damage. Instead, it said 20 tiles had been cracked by people walking on them. The other problems were caused by normal wear and tear that weren’t covered by her policy.
Cochran, however, said the initial damage was caused by the hurricane. It was exacerbated because Baptiste left the roof exposed for months instead of returning to do the repairs. In addition to rejecting her claim, her insurance company canceled her policy, she said.
Some fear their children will be left to cope with liens of $10,000 or more
Noguera, who spends his days sending updates on the latest action taken against Baptiste and writing letters to county, state and federal officials, said Baptiste’s reach was wide.
He ticks off a list of others who have been hurt by Baptiste.
Phyllis Stingo, an 88-year-old suburban Delray Beach woman, discovered Baptiste slapped a $10,600 lien on her house after her insurer paid $26,805 of the $35,700 he charged her for a new roof.
She sent what was to be Baptiste’s final $8,900 payment to his attorney, Jonathan Bloom, because she wanted to deduct the $1,118 she paid to replace gutters she said he destroyed. Eventually, after asking Judge Marni Bryson to sort out how the money should be distributed, Bloom got $7,009 for his work on Baptiste’s behalf, Stingo was reimbursed for the gutters and Baptiste got $708.
While Stingo persuaded the county licensing board to fine Baptiste $2,000 for doing the work without a license, the lien remains. Stingo worries that if she dies, her daughter will be forced to pay him before she can sell the house.
Carol Sellers also found herself embroiled in a legal battle with Baptiste. He sued the 77-year-old retiree for breach of contract. In the suit, Baptiste claimed Sellers signed a contract in January 2018 to pay him $33,265 to replace her roof and then didn’t hire him.
Sellers said she signed the contract because Baptiste told her he was an insurance adjuster. When she told him her insurer had paid $2,900 to repair her roof when a tree fell on it during Hurricane Irma, he promised he could get her more once he showed the contract to her carrier.
Even though Baptiste wasn’t a licensed adjuster or roofer, her attorney advised her to settle the lawsuit. She paid Baptiste the $8,000 he had spent on his attorney to enforce the contract. Including her own attorney fees and the cost of a mediator, she said that signing the document cost her nearly $16,000.
“I cried a lot, a lot, a lot,” said Sellers, who lives in Hampton Lakes, west of Boynton Beach. “Foolishly, I signed the contract. I shouldn’t have. Live and learn.”
Leader of residents’ efforts took roofer to court and lost his case, for now
Nogeura, who lost a similar court battle with Baptiste, said he’s not giving up. He has appealed Circuit Judge Jamie Goodman’s decision, ordering him to pay Baptiste nearly $40,000.
The amount includes $8,400 Baptiste said he made in emergency repairs after Hurricane Irma along with the money he lost after he claims Nogeura didn’t honor a $75,870 contract the former police officer signed to replace his roof.
Noguera claims the contracts are invalid because Baptiste wasn’t licensed when he wrote the contracts. Weeks before they were signed on Nov. 1, 2017, Baptiste’s ex-wife notified state officials that she would no longer serve as his qualifier, according to state records.
In a court document she filed after Baptiste sued her in 2018, she said she dropped him after she was cited by state regulators for not getting a permit in 2015 after being paid $1,500 by a Coral Lakes homeowner to install two skylights and then not completing the work. Duberceau-Baptiste said she was unaware of the contract Baptiste signed.
But, as the qualifier, it was her obligation to oversee her ex-husband’s work. Because she didn’t, the state licensing board threatened to fine her $20,000, she wrote.
If she stopped serving as a qualifier for Baptiste, regulators said the fine would drop to $3,700, she wrote. So she did.
However, state officials said it didn’t become official until Jan. 18, 2018. That meant Baptiste had the ability to contract to fix Noguera’s roof in November 2017, Goodman wrote.
While Noguera disagrees with the judge’s conclusion, he also said the documents Baptiste asked him to sign were labeled “contract/proposal.” He said he signed them after Baptiste assured him he was an insurance adjuster and would only use them to find out how much his carrier would pay for the damage.
When he found out Baptiste had made a claim to the insurance company for $8,400 for making emergency repairs, he said he was inflamed. Noguera said he had agreed to pay Baptiste $1,500 to patch a couple of places on the roof.
“When we saw that $8,400, we about lost our minds,” Noguera said. Worried that Baptiste was trying to dupe the insurance company, he said he hired another roofer, who replaced his roof for $70,000 – roughly $5,000 less than Baptiste wanted.
In the meantime, the insurance company approved the claim for emergency repairs and sent Noguera a check for $8,400. He tried to send it back, but he said the insurer wouldn’t accept it. So, he put it in the bank where it remains.
Roofer puts home up for sale, leading some to fear he may leave area
The experience spurred Noguera to investigate. He discovered that Baptiste had been arrested on charges of insurance fraud. He found out that Baptiste wasn’t licensed and that his wife had stopped being his qualifier. He cold-called people, like Stingo, who had liens placed on their houses by Baptiste.
When Baptiste recently put his house on the market for $1.5 million, Noguera sounded the alarm. He worries that Baptiste, a native of Trinidad, will try to leave the country before his trial in March.
To the group of seniors, Noguera is a hero. Without him, they said they would have never known that others also had run-ins with Baptiste.
Klein remembered when Noguera called her two years ago after combing through court records and seeing that she, too, was being sued by Baptiste.
“Something is going on and I would appreciate your help,” she said he told her. She didn’t hestitate to offer it. The number of people in their informal support group has steadily grown.
“There’s been so many cases,” she said. “It’s such a wide net of people who have been taken in.”
In some ways, Klein said her roof problems couldn’t have come at a worse time. She was being treated for breast cancer. She was worried and scared. But, she said, in retrospect, her sickness also served as a boon.
“I told myself that if cancer didn’t get me, he’s certainly not going to, either,” she said.