Potholes

Have any UK members successfully got money out of a council for damage caused by potholes in the road? I went over one this morning and it's just cost me £550 to put right! (new wheel and tyre).

I've got photos of the pothole, the damaged wheel and the invoice. What are my chances?

I'd suspect between slim and none. You'd have to prove some form of negligence on the part of the council.

Ask your insurance company, if you dare, if it's possible and practical to recover from them they would do it.

Actually in the UK, where Andy is, you can get some success on this issue.

Make sure your photos include details of the size of the hole. It might be an idea to ask some local residents if the hole has been there long.

You won't be suprised to find that there is already some stuff out there about the issue:

http://www.potholes.co.uk/?p=how_to_claim
http://www.zen35747.zen.co.uk/htm/pothole_claim2.htm
http://www.whatcar.co.uk/news-special-report.aspx?NA=224997&EL=3193644

It is of course fairly inexpensive and easy to take a small claims court action in England and Wales now, if you don't get any joy.

That's quite a hole:



"The picture shows a pothole which caused £250.00 of damage to my car suspension. Oxfordshire CC are claiming the site was inspected prior to my damage and nothing untoward was recorded so they were unaware of the problem. We are in the Small Claims Court on Monday Nov 5."

On driving down there this morning it appears the damage has been repaired. So it looks like I'm out of luck. Unless they'll believe this could do that much damage:

Your chances are quite good Andy. You need photos and something to show the size of the hole - measuring tape, CD etc just something to show scale.

Phone the roads department and get a claim form. Send off the photos and a copy of any work invoice, receipt or quote. Send it recorded delivery.

They may say "get lost" and its here that you keep at it. Eventually you will get it. Some local authorities are better than others though.

Edit: oops just saw its been filled-in Might still be worth a try though. They will have a record of the date the hole was filled in and your receipt will be dated. You've nothing to lose.

Edit2: £550??? For ONE wheel and tyre? Made of gold is it?

I would say that is a good sign, it means they knew about the problem, but didn't do anything about it until today.

Cheers

Cris.

Vixy works at a claims adjustment office that handles certain claims for the City of Seattle. If the UK is anything like the US in this regard, I'll bet that you CAN claim and get repaid for your damages from the pothole.

The reason? Here in Seattle, if the city had been notified about the pothole, and you got damaged from it, then you can claim. The fact that the pothole just got repaired means they were notified, so I'll bet your damage falls within that period.

If you lived in Seattle, I'd even be able to give you the phone number of where to file your claim.

From today's Daily Telegraph (24 November):
In December last year, my car hit a pothole measuring more than 4ft long and 2ft wide. It was up to 6in deep. I wrote to the local council, claiming damages for two new tyres and one new wheel. All I received was a letter stating it had a statutory defence. Further correspondence produced further denials of liability. Undeterred, I issued proceedings in the county court. By way of evidence I produced three witness statements that the hole had been there before the council's last inspection and a copy of a case before another county court where the district judge had ruled that, in the case before him, on the balance of probability, a hole of such size could not have arisen between the date of that council's last inspection and the date of the accident. On seeing my evidence the council paid my claim in full, plus the £50 court fee.
P. R., via email

Well, I wrote a letter to them around xmas time, including some photos of the hole, my wheel and tyre damage and a copy of the invoice for the new wheel and tyre (which I've already had to replace due to a puncture in the sidewall last week!).

I've now had letter saying they're looking at it. But they're saying I should've claimed off my insurer not them! Pardon my ignorance, but if I have an accident that's not my fault then I claim against the guilty party (in this case, the council) don't I?

I understood that you could claim off your insurer and they'd claim against the insurer of the guilty party. You get the benefit of their legal support.

Of course, you probably lose your no-claims bonus.

I rang the lady who sent me the letter and spoke to one of her colleagues, who had to be the without a doubt the rudest person I've had to deal with in a long time.

He asked me what I was trying to achieve by trying to claim money off the council for damage from a pothole, my insurer should pay up instead as that was their job.

So the council doesn't have to be responsible for the state of it's roads even though it takes money from me every month for their upkeep? What a tw*t.