Terra Pavers

I just Googled Javier's company to refer him to yet another friend of mine and I was surprised to see this issue, and another complaint website. I did note that Javier's company won the lawsuit against the complaining customer noted here.

Javier added a 3rd car driveway to my driveway, built a retaining wall and a custom stone mailbox to match the stone facade on my house. He carried the project from permitting to follow up in my nice East Boca neighborhood. He communicated very well with my wife and me independently, and when we ran across a design difference, Javier came back and changed the design on his own with no extra billing.

Many neighbors and friends asked me for his information afterwards and I have stayed in touch with him over the years since - not too normal for a contractor/homeowner relationship. I unequivocally recommend Terra Tiles and Pavers and the owner Javier Baptista for any paver, tile or stone work - and have referred him countless times to neighbors in the Old Floresta neighborhood.

I have been using Terra Tiles & Pavers for several years now. They have done work on my patio to keep my travertine tiles looking like new.

When I used them the first time, my patio tiles were uneven in some areas and rocking back and forth. The travertine looked worn, dull and was disintegrating. They came in and leveled the tiles that had become an issue, cleaned the entire patio and put on a slip proof sealer. The tile looked like it did the day it was installed.

It was a beautiful job. I have used them every year since. They are honest, and I have never had the first problem with them. I call them, they send me an estimate, they schedule and come out and do the work and I pay them.

Its always that simple.

I have recommended them to friends and feel confident in doing so. I give them a 5-star rating and are happy to do so.

Dear Mr. Customer (and/or anyone else reading this)

Amongst a few other reasons I started this company because I once was a victim of a very unprofessional and mediocre contractor. My idea and vision of a family-owned and great contracting company was to respect the basic principles of any well run and efficient business: Competitiveness and Knowledge, Responsibility, Punctuality, Honesty, Care and Quality. Our employees love their work, enjoy what they do and give beyond their 100% just because we treat them with the same basic core values. We do good work and treat employees and clients with the utmost respect, with the same strong ethical and family-like principles. Being as humble as I can, the result after nine long years of hard work, we are a top rated company in South Florida with a strong excellent reputation. Angie’s list customers, BBB customers as well as 95% of our legitimate reviews are a testament of this.

The last thing we want to do is to have to proceed with legal actions against anyone. We always tried our best to please all of our clients’ needs and requests, but when we are treated in a disrespectful, discriminatory and racist way and there are clear signs of a client trying to avoid his monetary responsibilities we are obligated to take actions.

With all due respect I won’t air our differences here and won’t start and email or reply chain here, but in sum, when we weren’t paid for the work we performed and completed, we were forced to file a lawsuit against the homeowners for breach of our contract. In response to that lawsuit, you raised all of these false statements and more. When it came time for your depositions (after a long year of waiting), you agreed, signed and gave us a check to pay our full damages plus some of our attorney’s fees. I think that summarizes pretty clearly what happened and tells anyone reading this whose arguments were correct.

We carry all of the necessary licenses to operate in Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Martin County. We pay top dollars for Workers Compensation and General Liability insurance. We are very legitimate. I’m an Engineer and hold a Master’s Degree in Business and I’m happy turn my expertise and background in doing I right for my clients and community. Our work ethic and history is crystal clear, in our nine years of being in business we have never had a legal matter to be resolved or had to enforce anything using a lawyer or third party. We have never been sued and have only ever had to sue one time: this particular case.

Respectfully,

Javier Baptista

(866) 232-****

Javier Baptista AKA Terra Tiles & Pavers AKA Bapmore Investments LLC was contracted to build a driveway that involved a city sidewalk crossing and B-curb adjustment.

He laid the limestone base, rebuilt the B-curb and a 4" city sidewalk to comply with the State Code requirement of a 6" sidewalk being a part of a driveway.

After that, because of a major disagreement (read below), he was fired and replaced with a contractor who is licensed to perform both pavers and concrete work.

Because of the legal loopholes (read below) he managed to collect more than the original proposal amount (without even finishing the job!)

First, let me explain, in short, Javier's Modus Operandi.

1. Win the bid by under-balling the cost of the PROPOSAL by either hiding some vital Code requirements (such as a 6' reinforced sidewalk in my case) and placing some legal loophole keywords (in my case: Curb/Concrete Gutter: Bottom Adjustment on Exit Ways /Adjust on Corners - not a full replacement/) that an average person will never catch.

He will also recommend pavers that are complete junk. Never accept these without trying to throw dirt on them and wash them. You will see.

2. Email or give this PROPOSAL to you for consideration.

3. When you are ready to sign, he will add a couple of small print pages to the CONTRACT (watch capitalization) in which his lawyer included so many loopholes that in a case of any disagreement you promise pay ALL Javier's legal fees. To us non-layers - his lawyer will stretch time to make sure you will pay more in legal fees then you would ever for the project itself.

4. If there is anything going not HIS way, sue you.

Javier Baptista is only licensed (in his county) to lay pavers (as of 2015). He has no license to perform concrete work.

When the permit was obtained and he started preparing for work, he produced a change order and requested extra money for a sidewalk and curb (see the Curb/Concrete Gutter: Bottom Adjustment on Exit Ways /Adjust on Corners above). That added 25% to the project cost but that is not that killed the deal.

When his concrete contractor built the entrance to the driveway, he made such long transitions from the B-curb to the flat gutter that the 20' driveway entrance and only a ~17' flat gutter. The edges were elevated (images are available on request). When I asked him to fix it, he first stonewalled by saying that Hollywood will not approve it, later he asked for ~$1,500, later cut it in half but wrote a long email that absolved him from any responsibility if the City will not approve the shorter (3'+!) transitions. After consulting the City, I decided to go with a contractor that was fully Concrete licensed and took responsibility for his work.

As you guessed, Javier sued. He would not settle for partial payment. He wanted the FULL AMOUNT (with the Change Order added to it). His lawyer friend and co-coach stretched time with useless paperwork which we could not understand at the time. After 6 months of paper pushing we were presented with the CONTRACT that my wife signed (see above) and we settled, paying his legal fees of $4,000.

SUGGESTION: if you would like to hire a lawyer to do your paver related work, Javier Baptista is your man.

The owner of Terra Pavers in Boca Raton is the same guy (Javier Baptista) who owned Milano Pavers. I paid him for my driveway, he started the work and never finished.

I found out that he did not pay the paver manufacturer for the materials and the manufacturer put a lien on my house and got a judgement to foreclose on my home. I had to settle with the manufacturing company and pay for the legal fees and pay twice for the driveway that was never finished. Then he opened Terra Pavers and Tiles and he is back in business!

Educated customers, beware of this person and his accomplice Hilal. By the way, his whole crew is illegal with no insurance so if one of them gets hurt you get sued for that also.

Newly Educated Customer...