Pot Holes!

redlady_1

Hi there,

I am just wondering what the legal standing is regarding these things. Increasingly more and more people are having their tyres and wheels ruined by them. Are the councils responsible for any repairs to your car which may be caused by one of these?

Thanks very much.

neilmcl

Only if they accept liabilty or you can prove negligence on the part of the local authority. If the authority take reasonable steps to repair and you happen to suffer a problem in the meantime then tough.

redlady_1

If they have made no effort to fix them and they are pretty deep would you be able to then? Or is it their own personal opinion of negligence?

neilmcl

redlady_1 wrote: »

If they have made no effort to fix them and they are pretty deep would you be able to then? Or is it their own personal opinion of negligence?

If they don't admit liabilty then it'd be up to you prove negligence. How, for example, are you going to prove that they are making no effort to fix them, particularly in the current situation where the councils are facing a huge workload and expense in fixing the crumbling road network.

Any particular reason you're asking?

neilmcl

I just came across this site - http://www.potholes.co.uk/ I'm not sure if it's any use to you.

Optimist

The answer is possibly....If you try to claim the council will try to fight you using Section 58 of the Highways act but it depends on their policy and how often they inspect the roads..

You would need pictures and measurements of the hole that caused the damage. You also need to identify the councils safety policy and find out when it was last inspected and any previous complaints received over the last couple of years a FOI would do that.

Make the council aware of the pothole by reporting it using http://www.fixmystreet.com/

redlady_1

One of the girls at work has just forked out a small fortune for repairs and I passed a car on the side of the road with its wheel hanging off this morning on the way to work. There are multitudes of the flipping things in the county. The A303 is particularly bad in places.

neilmcl

Which is why one could argue that these are exceptional circumstances at the moment, so it would be difficult to show the council is not taking reasonable steps in the current climate.

whatmichaelsays

You ultimately need to prove that the local authority knew about the hole and then failed to do anything about it.

I know that https://www.fillthathole.org.uk has a database of all potholes reported through their system. If the hole that damaged your vehicle is on there, it will help your case immensely.

redlady_1

However, if it had been reported and then nothing had been done to repair the pot hole in a suitable time frame, say two months, then perhaps you may have a case?

wallbash

I broke a front spring last week , Or did I ???

I turned left and the spring partied , terrible noise , thought the bottom of the engine had fallen off.

But the spring could have been broken for some days/miles , only becoming apparent when it separates.
Good Luck to those who try and claim.