Express MOT 'at risk' of collapse after flood damage

Parts of the city were underwater after strong winds from Storm Pierrick caused the spring tide to rise to record heights.

Gary Hocking has owned his garage Express MOT on Endle Road, and although this is the fourth time the business has flooded in 12 years, in the past he was able to prepare for it.

However, on Tuesday morning, the 58-year-old was taken aback when he found the garage had suddenly flooded – leaving all the equipment and electrics suffering water damage.

With his insurance provider no longer covering flood costs because the business is in a flood zone, the dad of three has been left to foot a bill of up to £90,000 in damages.

He told the Echo: “I am gutted. It wasn’t that the flooding was worse than before, it was that we couldn’t prepare for it because we didn’t know.

"Normally we would raise the MOT lifts and unplug the electrics, but we didn’t last night.”

Flooded Endle Street, Southampton (Image: Steve Nowacki)The water levels reached almost a foot inside the garage (Image: Newsquest, Jose Ramos)

Gary, who runs the family-run business with his three children, Ross, 30, James, 36, and Holly, 25 arrived at his garage around 7.30am on Tuesday and described the scenes he witnessed.

He said: “Everything was floating even the things that you wouldn’t expect to float.

“The water was about a foot high which meant all the plug sockets were wet as well as the electrics like the two areas of the workshop which have the MOT lifts.

“That’s the most expensive part. What I am dreading the most is when the engineer comes around, if he tells me that everything in the MOT equipment needs replacing, that will cost around £90,000 – and the insurance has said they won’t cover it.

"I am praying, that he can fix some of it.”

The garage on Endle Street, Southampton (Image: Newsquest, Jose Ramos)

Staff are using towels to drain the water out of the workshop (Image: Newsquest, Jose Ramos)

Because in the past the business has flooded and the costs to repair were claimed on insurance, since 2021 the business has been unable to find a provider which would cover flooding risks.

As a result, the 58-year-old said: “It will be a long and laborious process, a few days to get everything dried up and just hoping that we’re able to recover some of the machinery.”

Every day that the family from Lords Hill isn’t working, they estimate they will lose around £3,000 in earnings, which is causing massive strain on the firm.

He added: “It’s definitely putting us at risk. It’s not just that we’re paying for the repairs, but also, we still have bills to pay at work and at home, and wages to pay to my children.”