Pothole claims guide discussion

JoGab

So I was going to make a claim for a burst tyre due to a pothole and I followed your advice (and Potholes.co.uk) to request the FOI from Glasgow City Council. They tried to bill me almost £40.00 for it. There was/is no mention anywhere on this site that I can find to warn us that you'd get charged for the info.

nmachaya

Hi
I had an accident about a week ago I was pulling out of our parking area on a rainy day and there and potholes in our parking area I tried to break but the car slid I'm guessing due to no grip as we were on a pothole and I hit another car can I claim for the damage? As the other person wants 300 from.me to pay his repairs that's without mine thanks in advance x

bayscott

1. do scottish councils follow the same guidelines as english councils when drawing up their roads safety and condition inspection regime (even if the law they work to is different)?


2. can anyone point me towards a example of someone winning a pothole claim by arguing that a council was negligent by using a sole driver/inspector rather than both a driver and an inspector to carry out inspections? a potholes site i found online indicates so, but i am struggling to find a specific example to quote.


cheers, and wish me luck!

NWOIHTS

StringyBob wrote: »

There are different kinds of repairs and materials used. The quickest and easiest is the shove a load of bitmac in a hole, flatten it and go. That can last between days and years. We are trying to move away from that onto hot rolled patches, top surface resurfacing and full resurfacing. These involve time and money and are on planned works, but they do reduce the amount of potholes.

Like all local authorities we are skint and budgets are being cut left, right and centre, but thankfully we haven't cut the planned works budget, as it will save us money in the long run and reduce the amount of potholes.

Thanks for the reply stringbob. I find it amazing with our council they seem to have plenty of money to spend on traffic calming, build outs, new "traffic pinching" junctions with copious amounts of lights and islands and many other projects to suit the whims of the PC brigade. I always wonder if they took the tarmac they built road humps with and filled in the potholes that would be interesting to see how many they could fill. Not getting at you at all Bob I understand that the council only have so much money however they have sat back when they did have more money and left the roads to crumble into disrepair, they let utility companies rip up roads left right and centre, usually, and ironically, just after the road had been retarred and now the roads are beyond a point where they can patch repairs, I would say at rough estimate that about 70-80% of the roads, at least in my area, need totally ripped up and relaid. When will that happen I wonder?

NWOIHTS

bayscott wrote: »

1. do scottish councils follow the same guidelines as english councils when drawing up their roads safety and condition inspection regime (even if the law they work to is different)?

cheers, and wish me luck!

Bayscott have a look at this FOI, it has a few PDFs attached (near bottom) regarding required roads maintenance in Scotland:

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/pothole_road_maintenance_glasgow

hacksawcats

Hi Everyone, I hit a pothole a couple of months ago in a car I don't use very much (Summer Car) during the last few days the steering has been making a loud clicking noise, anyway took it to the garage and they said the steering racks broken possibly due to hitting a pot hole! Does anyone know if I can still make claim retrospectivly?
Thanks in advance

Crabman

hacksawcats wrote: »

Hi Everyone, I hit a pothole a couple of months ago in a car I don't use very much (Summer Car) during the last few days the steering has been making a loud clicking noise, anyway took it to the garage and they said the steering racks broken possibly due to hitting a pot hole! Does anyone know if I can still make claim retrospectivly?
Thanks in advance

You have several years to make a claim (either three or six, I can't remember which). It may be a bit trickier to prove that the pothole caused the damage.

You can check the following sites to see if it (or a nearby hazard) was reported to the local authority:

http://streetrepairs.co.uk/

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

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

https://www.fixmystreet.com/

If they knew about it but failed to repair, it'll be easier to make a strong claim. If however it wasn't reported and wasn't picked up on their last routine inspection then it may not be as easy.

If more people take 30 seconds to report a pothole that they see on their journeys, the state of the roads will improve.

forbecs

I found this website by chance following pothole damage to my car.
Followed the guidance and surprise surprise the original claim was rejected by the Local Authority
Not to be deterred I sought the maintainence history through the FOI route which seemed to infer that problems in the street had not been actioned over the 3 months prior to my event. Should say that once I reported the damage and indicated my intention to claim, the repairs were completed the day after !
The process has taken nearly 3 months but I have today heard that the claim will be paid in full as a
goodwill gesture save that no liability is being accepted for the damage. I can live with that !!
The moral seems to be , don't be deterred !

Bossworld

My request for compensation has been declined, despite video evidence (dashcam) of the car nosediving over the gap in the road, which has since been filled in, and more recently, resurfaced.

Resulting in the write off of a £170 run-flat tyre.

It appears I'm completely out of luck, as the road hasn't been adopted by the council or the Highways Agency, despite forming part of a roundabout that exits and joins the A1.

Agrajag

Bossworld wrote: »

My request for compensation has been declined, despite video evidence (dashcam) of the car nosediving over the gap in the road, which has since been filled in, and more recently, resurfaced.

Resulting in the write off of a £170 run-flat tyre.

It appears I'm completely out of luck, as the road hasn't been adopted by the council or the Highways Agency, despite forming part of a roundabout that exits and joins the A1.

Somewhat confused. Where is this section of road? I may be able to tell you if is a HA (now HE) road. Though usually HE only owns the slip roads at junctions, not the roundabout itself (there are some exceptions)

And if no-one has adopted it, who fixed the pothole?