Closed until further notice

Now she has to do it all over again, after the dress, along with piles of other custom-made clothing, was ruined one recent afternoon when the ceiling, heavy with water from the landlord's restaurant above, collapsed inside her small boutique, Kim's Fashion Design at 12 Kneeland St. in Chinatown.

As she surveyed the water damage in the store she has owned for 20 years, Pham said the wedding dress she had made for a customer had been ruined, adding that she would "make another one and not tell her."

Pham, a Vietnamese immigrant who is well known among brides from Copley Square to Chinatown, said the damage could have been avoided if the landlord had responded to her repeated complaints about conditions in the store and if the city had pressed him to do so.

The landlord does not care, said Pham, who speaks with a thick Vietnamese accent. "We cannot do anything."

The landlord - David Wong, who owns Empire Garden on Washington Street - has not responded to repeated calls to his restaurant for comment.

William J. Good III, commissioner of Boston's Inspectional Services Department, took the blame for the city's lack of a response. He acknowledged that his department received complaints about the leaks, but said they were referred to the wrong department.

"It wasn't that [the complaints] were not responded to," Good said. "They were not responded to properly."

That's little comfort to Pham and two other tenants, Peter Khuong, who owns Oki Hair Studio, and Mary Nguyen, who owns Pho Thien Thien restaurant. They have been complaining to the city and the landlord for years about chronic water leaks, odor, and rodents coming from the landlord's restaurant, which occupies the floor above their businesses.

Now city inspectors have padlocked their stores because of the leak, mold, and other violations of the sanitary code. As they wait for the repairs to be done, Pham, Nguyen, and Khuong say they are losing hundreds of dollars daily, money they cannot afford, especially during a recession.

"We are poor people," said Nguyen. "Too many times we talk to the landlord," she said, only to be told that he cannot do anything.

Two days after Pham's ceiling collapse, the ceiling at Pho Thien Thien restaurant also came tumbling down as patrons dined on pad thai, soup, and Vietnamese pho. It rained down dirty, smelly water, rodent remains, and chicken bones from the landlord's restaurant above onto an empty cashier's corner, Nguyen said. "It was embarrassing."

Wong owns the building located on Kneeland Street between Washington and Kapp streets, Good said. The kitchen of his restaurant is located above the three damaged stores.

City records show that Pham and the other business owners have been complaining about water leaks since 2003, when a complaint was filed with the Fire Department. In 2007, the city received more complaints. But nothing was done. Pham filed new complaints about water leaks with Inspectional Services in February and March.

After the ceiling collapse, Boston Public Health Commission inspectors, called to the site on April 3, found "chronic water leaks from above" and determined that "years of neglect of not fixing water leaks" caused the bathroom ceiling to collapse.

Citing potential health hazards, the city ordered Wong to immediately shut the stores and to have licensed professionals repair the problems.

This week the health commission said Wong has corrected the mold and other health violations. But the stores remain closed as Inspectional Services seeks to ensure that Wong has repaired the leaks that caused the collapse.

Good acknowledges that his department didn't recognize the extent of the leaks at 8-12 Kneeland St. He said that because there was a restaurant in the building and there were complaints of unsanitary conditions, his call takers referred reports about the leaks to the department's health division, instead of its building division, which would have dispatched plumbers and mechanics.

In addition, he said, the complaints were sporadic. He said there was a 22-month gap between the first complaint of a water leak and his call takers might not have been aware of the severity of the problem. "It didn't get tied together," he said. "Here was a case where the system could have worked better."

Good said he is planning several changes to prevent future lapses, including training call takers to properly assess complaints and correctly forward them to the appropriate division.

The three owners say they each pay more than $5,100 a month to lease their leaky stores.

With repairs underway, Pham is working at her small store in Copley Square and Khoung is working at his mother's beauty store, Salon Neo, in Quincy.

But Nguyen has no place else to work, so she comes to Kneeland Street to clean the restaurant and tell patrons to hold on a little longer.

Still, it's been 13 days, and no word on when the stores will open. "We are still waiting," she said.

Meghan Irons can be reached at mirons@globe.com.