Pot Hole Damage

fattony

Hi

im in the process of filling out a claim form sent to me by my local council to attempt to claim for the cost of 2 x new tyres which were required as my brand spanking 2 x new tyres were damaged due to a pot hole.

Basically my wife was driving on a 2 way road with traffic on coming and couldn't avoid the pot hole, how would you write this in a letter, exactly as I have above?

Valli

did you take a PHOTO of the pot hole?

a photo of the damage?

Send a letter detailing the date of the damage and a copy of the repair/replacement bill and copies of the photos if you have them.

Dear Sir

On (date) I was driving along the A123 at XXXX when I sustained damage to my front and rear offside tyres when I hit a pothole.

I enclose a copy of the bill for the replacement of the tyres (or whatever) and photographs of both the pothole and the car, after impact.

I look forward to receiving your cheque for £X in full and final settlement of this claim.

Yours faithfully

A. Person

Encs: Copy bill
Copy photographs

(PS sign and date the photos;))

jackieb

You have my sympathies. I had to pay £126 for a new tyre last week due to pot hole damage - I had a bulge in my tyre. It's impossible to avoid some of them, however hard you try, especially if you're out of town and it's dark.

fattony

Thanks, yes we have photos and measurements.

Valli

fattony wrote: »

Thanks, yes we have photos and measurements.

piece of cake then!

bris

Valli wrote: »

piece of cake then!

No not at all, in fact it is now very hard to get pot hole claim to stick. The council now have a "section 58 defence" google it.
This gives them a clear get out clause if the section 58 has been done properly.

tbw

I reckon Bris is right!

Several years ago I ruined a Mazda tyre in a pot hole which had developed round a metal drain cover. Cost me £150 to replace and the Council said they weren't liable as 'I was the first person to report the pothole'. apparently under section 58 (or thereabouts) they are only liable if somebody else has already reported it and they haven't repaired it in reasonable time.

I did get my money though as, when refuting my claim under the Act, they shot themselves in the foot by sending me copies of the repair gangs reports - they had been working on the same stretch of road a couple of weeks earlier and had drawn yellow lines indicating repairs were needed in loads of places. They hadn't spotted 'my' pothole though - so I said they had been negligent/incompetent etc given that the hole was 5" deep and over 6" wide and had clearly been there for some time as it had weeds growing in it!

They argue so I took out a Small Claims thing - and they paid up 2 days before the Hearing. You can beat them - but its not easy!

fattony

Thanks for the response's, I got a letter back from the council today and they have said they are not liable:

They advise me that they have a duty as a highways authorithy which requores them to maintain the highway network to a reasonable standard and they are not required to keep the highway in a perfect condition, defects will arise from time to time.

The road in question was reported on 12th October 2010 and no hazardous defects were recorded, on the 16th December 2010 during the course of the Highways Inspector everyday duties he noticed the defect and classified it as requiring future programmed repairs, our incident occured during the intervening period prior to the completion of these works.

They are satisfied the repairs to the road were completed in reasonable time and deny liability for my claim.

Where can I go from here if anywhere?

We had heavy snow on the 18th December 2010 which I can only assume made the road worse and when we called to report the pot hole immediately after the incident the council already knew about the pot hole and within 5 days it was repaired.

The incident itself happened on 2nd February 2011.

I really dont want to give up on this, is this a generic sort of letter and those who take the time to reply eventually get somewhere or should I just give up?

PZH

fattony wrote: »

...on the 16th December 2010 during the course of the Highways Inspector everyday duties he noticed the defect and classified it as requiring future programmed repairs, our incident occured during the intervening period prior to the completion of these works.

...and when we called to report the pot hole immediately after the incident the council already knew about the pot hole and within 5 days it was repaired.

The incident itself happened on 2nd February 2011.

So..

The Council admit the road needed repairing back on 16th December 2010
The damage to your tyres occurred 2nd February 2011
Five days AFTER you reported the damage the Council repaired the pot-hole

I would have said that the Council knew of the pot-hole well in advance and should have repaired it sooner ?

fattony

That's what I think but they're saying that's it's not their fault, what should my next step be?

Car just failed mot on a fractured suspension spring passenger side of the car, wondering if it was from the pot hole

Could really do with some advise on what to do next

aheaton46

If they are maintaining the road network to a reasonable standard, maybe you don't have a claim. They don't have to fix every pothole immediately.

Out of interest, home come your wife couldn't avoid the pothole? Surely she could have waited for a gap in oncoming traffic and driven round it. It sounds like she was driving too fast to stop in time after she'd seen it, hence the damage to the tyres.