BATON ROUGE - An unfortunate mix-up is costing a local roofing company a lot of business.

Baton Rouge-based business Apex Construction and Roofing says there has been trouble ever since an Alabama company with a similar name started working in town.

They contacted 2 On Your Side to help set the record straight and clear their name.

Apex Construction and Roofing has been operating in Louisiana for five years, tackling commercial and residential projects. Owner Canon Cockrell says it's a family business that started in Baton Rouge and is based out of Baton Rouge. Business has been good until things shifted following Hurricane Ida.

"People started confusing their business with our business," Cockrell said.

It's his biggest headache. Day after day the company fields calls or social media messages from angry customers. Cockrell says they try to explain to them what's going on, but often the message isn't well-received and they're losing a lot of residential business.

"It's probably an 80 to 90% residential drop in the past three or four months," he said.

The other company, Apex Roofing and Restoration, is based out of Alabama. The trouble comes with the contract. McClenny, Moseley and Associates out of Houston, Texas, partnered with the roofing company. It's an arrangement Louisiana Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon calls fraudulent and his office sent MMA a cease and desist order in February.

"The customer is thinking the insurance is handling everything and really their insurance company is in a lawsuit with a law company that they didn't even know about," Cockrell said.

Hundreds of customers have fallen into that hole, trapped with a damaged roof and no insurance money. Cockrell says his company, Apex Construction and Roofing, is an innocent bystander in all of this.

"It's really unfortunate. We're trying to differentiate that that's not us," he said.

Several newspaper and online articles have been written about MMA and the other roofing company. People see "Apex" and think badly.

"It's going to tear us down significantly," Cockrell said.

Right now, Cockrell says his company is considering running some ads to get ahead of the confusion or completely rebranding.

Apex Roofing and Restoration says it was not aware at the time that there was another company located in Baton Rouge with a similar name. The company is still doing business in Louisiana.