“The shop was literally swimming in water”: Baby Boutique Preston reopens after flood caused by flat above

Baby Boutique on Church Street, the only store of its kind in the city, opened in 2019 but has been closed since February due to water damage caused by a persistent leak, which escalated into a four inch high flood.

The owner Sarah Marsh says it took too long for the housing association to fix the leak in the first place, and even longer to remedy the damage.

37-year-old Sarah, who runs the business alongside her husband Connor said: “It started off as a little drip in October, so we notified Community Gateway, but the leak just got worse and worse. The people who lived upstairs refused entry to any of the plumbers, so then between Christmas and New Year, they had to get bailliffs in to allow access to the plumbers. The leak was finally stopped at the start of January, and since then, I've been fighting to get my business back open with the insurance companies.”

The flood had left Sarah’s property with severe water damage on the ceiling, the floor, and she lost at least £25,000 in stock. Only being able to trade online meant the store lost over £60,000 pounds in revenue up until the end of March and of that, her business interruption insurance has only paid out £8000.

Whilst Baby Boutique was closed, competitors James Andrew in Blackpool even shut for good, so Sarah says they lost out on serving a whole new area which could have seen their turnover rise by 30%.

Although Sarah and her landlord had been trying to communicate with Gateway to get a resolution since January, Sarah says she “wasn’t getting anywhere”, so in February she contacted Gateway’s CEO, Robert Wakefield.

Sarah explained: “I said look you’ve let water pour into my shop for three months, you've ruined my business, my staff can't come into work because we physically couldn't trade. I've had to continue paying the staff while we couldn't trade, which has been a nightmare. We've had customers that have still come to the business because although we advertised online that we were closed, not everybody looks on the internet. One day, I came here to meet an insurance assessor and we had somebody who had travelled all the way from Southport and somebody from Kendall, so people had made 40 minute journeys and I felt awful because I couldn't let then in because the shop was literally swimming in water… It's just been one big nightmare after another, and it could have been resolved a lot quicker.”

Sarah says only after contacting Robert in February did she receive her first apology, and the ball finally started rolling in terms of repairs. Sarah was originally told that her property would be fixed by the end of January, but work actually started in April.

The mum of one added: “For us, as a small business things are hard enough at the minute, nevermind having a flood and not being able to trade. I've said a number of times to Gateaway that if I didn't personally borrow money to tide us over, we would have literally lost everything because of the leak.

“I've asked them to pay for the interest on the money that I've had to borrow but then that's still ongoing as well…We've got really good business here, but when something happens that takes seven months to sort out, it will put any business to its knees.”

Baby Boutique finally reopened on Friday, April 28, and speaking to the Post the day before, Sarah said: “There's been so many times I didn't think I would reopen, so many times I've literally sat at home and cried and said I'm gonna have to phone the girls and tell them they haven't got jobs anymore, that it still feels like it isn't happening… I'll be excited tomorrow when I know that we are finally open and it's over.”

Craig Garner, Executive Director of Resources at Community said: “Community Gateway were informed of the leak by Sarah's landlord, John Turner Construction, at the beginning of December 2022. Following a number of investigations into the flats above the shop to identify the source, the leak was fixed on 3rd January 2023. We've been working with our insurers since January and this process has taken much longer than expected. We are sorry for the length of time this has taken and are putting appropriate steps in place to do better in future. We continue to support Sarah and have been in regular contact with her. We are pleased the shop has re-opened and we wish Sarah every success for the future.”