Damage to my car due to pothole in road.

rfeenie

Hello

I lodged a compensation complaint with the council after I received a burst tyre and wrecked alloy wheel due to a sizeable pothole on a roundabout. I have since had a letter back( see attached) saying that no compensation will be paid as the council repaired the defect a day or so after I reported it.

Is this fair?

rdwarr

It doesn't seem right at all. What the letter DOES do is acknowledge that there was a defect present so I'd seek legal advice now.

waster_2

It may be correct. The council have to demonstrate that they acted reasonably and diligently.

You (I assume?) would not expect the council to employ sufficient highway inspectors to check every inch of the public highway every day or so. So the alw expects the council to have a sensible regime in place to ensure that defects are identified and repaired as soon as is practicable and reasonable. Howeveer, if the defect is reported to them by the public then they must also act to remedy it.

What you need to ask the council is what their inspection regime is, whether this defect had previously been notified to them and when, when this section of highway was last inspected and what, if any defects were noted (it could affect the frequency of inspection necessary) when, if it at all, this section of highway is due for any maintence works and what they are.

You will then need to decide on the information provided (ask for it under the Freedom of Information Act) whether the counil have acted in a reasonable and practicable manner. I would suggest if they have a proper inspection regime in place and the highway is inspected at least twicew a year then they would probably be able to use that as a defence if you took them to Court. However, if someone else had reported the defect 2 or more days befor and they were just tardy arrange a remedy then they stand no cahnce.

Did you take photos with a ruler to show how big the pot hole was. This is usually a necessity as just a small little pot hole would probably be demed to be acceptable.

rfeenie

Thanks for the replies guys, I am going to send them the following letter. Also i could not get a picture as the pothole was repaired PDQ i.e. the next day! Good service I agree but I've still had to shell out money.
I'm sure if it was a pothole on a pavement and an injury was received by someone then compensation would be divvied out no bother!

Reference: 011711-0136166-GD-131
Dear Sir/Madam,
I am writing in response to your letter dated 22 February 2006. I am a little puzzled that no compensation claim is going to be granted even though the council admit to and repair a road defect. Would the fact that they repaired the defect AFTER the event not constitute an admission of negligence in that repairs were obviously required?
I would appreciate if you could send me a copy of the council’s inspection policy and copies of the last few inspections records for the A8000 roundabout at Kirkliston.


Sincerely,
Rob Feenie

buglawton

The contractor who repaired it probably had to fill in a form describing how big the pothole was.

burbs_2

I think that you are going to have a bit of a problem getting any sort of compensation out of them to be honest with you. They are a big fish and at the end of they day will just fob you off. Even though they have admitted that they carried out work on the road there is no evidence that your car was even damaged there.

They will just continue to take the no compensation line with you i think.

balsingh

Unless you threaten them with legal action, I doubt anythign will come of this. One of my relatives deals with council claims and you usually need some kind of proof that the specific pothole did damage the car ... and that could be near enough impossible to do.

Liz19

My sister had this problem with her local council. She sought legal advice and then fought her own case in court and won compensation. It took months and the council did everything in their power to obstruct things including telling out and out lies but she plodded on and it was worth it in the end.

Goth1

take them to court

councils are getting to confident on this issue and to tight on a proper road budget

buglawton

On top of everthing else, do you have low profile tyres? If so this is maybe why you copped the damage and others didn't.

K9cuddles

My friend had this prob too and didn't get any compensation. Have you sought advice from the Citizens Advice Bureau?