need advice RE:damage to car due to raised manhole

planetxking

I'll try to be as concise as possible. I live on a cobbled Street with around 45 terraced houses on with a dead end. there are 4 manhole covers in the centre of the road which are unavoidable most of the time as there is only on street parking and the road is only large enough for a single car to pass thorough at a time. two of the covers are surrounded by cobbles which have subsided such that the manholes are raised quite significantly, so much so that I literally can't drive my car over them without my exhaust and under-tray, scraping over them and I have to pass them both in-order to get to my house. I informed the council on the 9th July about the issue. since the problem has got worse and my exhaust is sustaining quite significant damage and before long will possibly need replacing. the under-tray and several brackets already require replacing. I really don't know what to do next. I have taken pictures of the manholes and pictures of the current damage. but there is no point in my repairing any of the damage as no sooner have i fixed it will it want doing again until the council fix the problem. however, i'm really hesitant in going to them again until the 56days are up from me informing them as that is their pledge for time frames to fix the problem. will they be more open to me going to them now and trying to save them money in making a claim before more significant damage occurs or will they just say that they have not failed on their promises yet? also, i don't think that the pictures I have are going to be enough "evidence" that the manholes are the cause of the problem. i had the idea that i could set up a video camera on the pothole under the bodywork and record they scraping but then will i get in trouble for wilfully damaging my property? any help would be most appreciated

GwylimT

So if there were raised ironworks in your street that the council were failing to deal with, you wouldn't be at all bothered that you were unable to use your vehicle until the council eventually decided to put the road into a fit state?

The council are responsible for the state of the roads, they are liable to both repair the roads and they are liable for costs when their own failures cause damage to cars, this case is no different to damage caused by having to drive over potholes.

planetxking

you've clearly chosen to ignore the part about not being able to get to my house without passing over the manholes!

Further to your assumption that I'm some sort of idiot trying to claim money from my local council for fun or as some sort of opportunist, have you considered the possibility that I might be disabled? think before you speak moron!

somethingcorporate

Could you not park further up and walk to your house to avoid damaging the car?

Crabman

Hi planetxking & welcome to MSE :hello:

Have other residents experienced damage to their vehicles? In any case it may be worth making contact with your local councillor for help with the issue.

One issue you may face is that you reported the fault and were therefore aware of it. This doesn't excuse the council's delay in fixing the problem but in a claim you would likely have to explain why you continued to drive over the raised manhole resulting in damage to your vehicle.

It may be worth checking third-party sites to see if the issue was reported by anyone else or (in the case of the second site) advice on the claims process:

http://www.fillthathole.org.uk/

http://www.potholes.co.uk/

Weird_Nev

I see two options:
1) If you are disabled, then bring this to the attention of the council as you cannot get safely to or from your home without risking damage to your car. And undertray is one thing, sump damage or something else is much more serious.
2) If the bit about you being disabled was hypothetical, then park your car at the end of the road until repairs are made. If they're not repaired after 56 days, then raise merry hell as you're not able to get to your home.

The only thing I'd add, is is your car modified in any way? By modified I mean lowered. I ask because most cars have at least 10cm ground clearance, and raised ironworks really do have to be significantly exposed to come into contact with the underside of most standard cars.

If your car is standard or just sporty, and other residents have a similar problem getting to or from their homes, then get them involved to increse pressure on the council.

If you've lowered your car (And I say this as someone who's lowered their last 3 sporty cars by sensible amounts!) and it's now making contact with metalwork, then not only is that "your problem" but also I don't see why the council should pay out for your repairs when 99% of cars could clear the road without damage.

Strider590

Weird_Nev wrote: »

If you've lowered your car (And I say this as someone who's lowered their last 3 sporty cars by sensible amounts!) and it's now making contact with metalwork, then not only is that "your problem" but also I don't see why the council should pay out for your repairs when 99% of cars could clear the road without damage.

And tread carefully if this is the case....... Council workers can be real jobsworths, I wouldn't put it past them to contact your insurance company to tell them about your mods (or threaten to, if you don't go away), or to try to claim from you for damaging their road and ironwork.

Working for the council sometimes goes wrongly to their heads, instead of working for the tax payer, they see themselves as being over and above the tax payer.

cootuk

Report it to the council.
Then, if it is causing damage, don't drive over it again until fixed.
The council could well throw out your claim as you didn't mitigate your losses by avoiding driving over them, but continued to do so, despite knowing damage was being caused.
Most people have absolutley no right to park outside their house so park further down.