Pothole claims guide discussion

Tilt

BaileyB wrote: »

Just after a little but if advice to see if this is worth pursing.

My claim was rejected I hit a pothole on the 16/01/17 which is turn broke my coil spring and shredded my tyre. My claim was for just these and labour which was £130 Inc vat.

After 7 weeks of chasing they got back to me:

The claim has been carefully investigated and we must advise you that liability is denied and unfortunately we have no offers to make in respect of this loss.



The decision is based upon the fact that our client has in place and can demonstrate a reasonable system of inspection. The road is inspected on a 6 monthly basis and was last inspected prior to your accident on the 10/1/17. An actionable defect was observed on that occasion and a priority 2 repair was ordered to be completed within 35 working days.



Taking all the facts into account, we do not consider that our clients have been in breach of their statutory duties and moreover that they have taken reasonable care in the circumstances to ensure the safety of the highway.



This being so, we consider that our clients have not been negligent in any way, and whilst we have every sympathy, we regret we are unable to offer any compensation on behalf of our client.



We appreciate this is not the answer which you would have wanted or hoped for but trust you will understand the reasons for our position.



Yours faithfully,



So just unlucky?

Wow! So they have admitted that they were aware of the problem a whole 6 weeks BEFORE your incident!

I would say that gives you enough ammunition to make an application to the small claims court. I would say that their quoted time scale to make good the repair is unreasonable.

BaileyB

I think you misread the date of the accident. It was a week before they noticed it, according to them. I drove down there a few weeks later and still not repaired.

Tilt

BaileyB wrote: »

I think you misread the date of the accident. It was a week before they noticed it, according to them. I drove down there a few weeks later and still not repaired.

Ah yes, my bad.

But depending on how deep/dangerous the pot hole was should of dictated how soon they attended it. Either that or put some form of warning signs out.

Did you have images of it?

gavint8

Hello Everyone,

Could do with some advice on a pot hole blow out, the damage was 2 Buckled and craked alloys and 2 new tyres. £600 repair bill.

The pot hole was 3.2m Long, 1.3m Wide and 150MM Deep, and covered by a puddle on a B Class road in North Lanarkshire.

As expected the council rejected the initial claim, saying a survey was done on the 21st with no faults reported, I hit the pot hole on the 26th. This is a small rural road, with very light traffic, I have drivin it loads of times, its peppered with 100`s of pot holes, cracks and temp repairs.

I have done the freedom of information request and have the reports here, almost all details of the actual survey reports are blacked out.

On a stretch on road less than 2 miles, there has been at least 4 Cat 1 reports (serious) and over 60 temp pot holes filed.

I am really at a loss on what to do next. Can any one help ?

Emsgray1

Hi Everyone

I've recently requested information from my local council relating to the maintenance of a local road where I recently had a puncture & damaged my front tyre & alloy. I had to replace the tyre the very next day & as such I sent in a claim to the council which they rejected as they claim to have last inspected the road in November 2016 & my damage occurred in January 2017. They say that I was the first person to have reported the pothole & that within 5 days of my claim to them they arranged repair to it which they have now done. They have used the argument that they couldn't reasonably have known about the pothole if no one had previously reported it. I am very sceptical about this as it is an extremely busy road & as such I have requested information under the FOI Act. I have now received a letter back from them stating that under the Environmental Information Regulations the Council is applying an exception to it's obligation to disclose the information requested as basically it is not in the public interest to do so ?? Is it just me or does this not sound suspiciously like they have something to hide ? I'm wondering where I can go with this now as it appears I'd have little ground to challenge this. Has anyone else been refused this information under the FOI Act as I thought they had a legal obligation to provide this ? Thanks

Gusianr

Hi
I have had a very similar situation with our local Council- They refused to provide details of Road inspections under the Environmental Information Regulations and subsequently rejected a claim for new Alloy , tyre and Garage work to inspect my vehicle following Pot hole damage at the end of January. They claim I was the first to report this pothole (crater which has been developing over a number of weeks from its appearance) and that their inspection was within the code of practice at the end of November. They subsequenty repaired the pothole within 10 days.
Has anyone experience of taking matters like this to the small claims court? The amount is only £150 but it is the principal of the Councils attitude to road maintenance. Thanks

Ant_in_Cornwall

Thank you MSE! I have just received a check from Cornwall Council for £126.79 following a damage to a tyre after hitting a pothole. I used the quick claim form on the council website and the letter template on the MSE website. I also took lots of photos of the damaged tyre, a photo of the pothole (with my car keys for scale) and a print of google maps showing the location of the pothole (along with photos that showed it's position. Although this sounds a bit arduous, in fact all this took a little over 30 mins and getting the price of the tyre back seems a good return. The whole process took about 2 weeks and Cornwall Council accepted my claim without further argument. As a bonus (and boosting my feeling of having done something for the greater good) within 2 days of acknowledging my claim, all the potholes on that stretch of road had been patched - maybe just a coincidence, but they had been there for as long as I can remember previously!

Jennifer_Longstaff

Hi Everyone,
I have just received a letter back from Glasgow City Council rejecting my claim for damage done to my brand-new car. My tyre blew up my allow had a chunk taken out of it and I had to replace plastic casing underneath my car.
In total it cost £150, it would have cost a lot more had I not known the mechanic.
I am gutted as naively thought that this was going to be an open and shut case.
I was driving home and on the road in question I was doing less than 5mph as I pulled in to let another car past and when I went to pull off again (not seeing the massive pothole) I drove straight into it and next thing I know my front left tyre blows up and I veer onto the pavement.
I was advised by a friend to complain about the pothole and also submit a FOI request asking how many other cars have been damaged by the said pothole. I was lead to believe that if someone else had damaged their car then they would have to pay out for my damages. This is not the case.
In the last 3 years 7 other people have complained about damaging their cars on the same pothole. Yet the still rejected my claim.
I came across this website and have now submitted another FOI Request re the maintenance of the road.
Any other advice would be greatly appreciated.
Jen

Tabz123

Hi, I am a newbie and am struggling to find where you actually start a new thread? Any help ?

Tabz123

Hello,
I recently hit a pothole in Manchester (North Street) at around 25 miles per hour. The depth of the pothole was such that it cracked my exhaust and caught my alloys which were diamond cut alloys. Overall it cost me £550 to repair. After months of complaints to MCC and letters back and forth they have rejected my claim. They said that this particular road only required an inspection every 6 months and they inspected it on 09.09.16 and even though their SLAs say they should repair within 20days they carried out the repair on 31.09.16. I actually hit the pothole on 25.09.16 and so they refuse to pay as I hit the hole within their SLA. However looking at the road it has a great amount of traffic, especially lorries and therefore the 6 month inspection they carry out is not adequate to begin with. My last resort is the small claims court. Is this worth it given my claim details ?