Taking council to court vai HMCS money claim online

iosullivan

Evening all - Some help needed

Back in March this year I managed to substain damage to my car when i hit a pot hole in the road - damaged tyre and wheel - Had to fork out nearly £600 to get fixed as need new tyre and alloy wheel (low profile tyres and Alloy wheel)
I am advised the council of the defect - filled out all there forms blah blah - Got a letter back advisng not there issue is in fact Thames Water issue as hole is a collopsed man hole cover - Thames Water advised in fact not there responsibility and is in fact the council - Now The council advised as there road report says this defect was not there on there routine inspection they can't be held responsible and will not pay up
Now the council say the road is inspected monthly but have not told me when it was last inspected - i know for a fact that this hole was there at the start of the year but was not until March that I started to use the road daily
I have now started court procees via HMCS money claim online but now I am puzzled on what I need to do so this is where i need help

I have issued court papers and have had a number of letters back statng they are defending claim and have 28 days to reply - now what do i do now? does this site sort out solicitors or do I need to get one sorted - what happens if I go to court - I am really puzzled and need some help please?

I am and will get my money back somehow - Oh and before peopel ask I have photos of the pot hole and damage to my wheel - Advise please - has anyone used this HMCS Money claim online site?:eek:

Iamthesmartestmanalive

I believe councils are only liable if they knew of the issue and never rectified it

Id imagine the same applies to utility companies, its all good and well you saying you knew it was there but did you report it ? did anyone else? can you prove it

Tbh these cases are very hard to win and prove

jonesMUFCforever

I agree - it will be up to you to prove that whoever 'owns' the hole knew that it was there and did nothing about it.
Very difficult to prove - do you have any photos of the hole and your car?

If it was me I would try claiming on my car insurance - with any losses to be fought over by the legal assistance insurance team.
They have more resources than you or I.
Do you have legal assistance either with your car or home insurance.
If so give them a call first.

Poppy9

If you did not report the defect in the road to the council in January when you noticed the hole was there you will fail in your action against the council. You knew the hole was there, you had a duty of care to yourself to ensure that you did not sustain injury or damage to you or your vehicle due to the defect.

If you had reported it to the council in January and then could not avoid the pothole i.e. due to traffic, road layout etc. then you could claim because the council would have had reasonable time to rectifiy the defect and had failed to do so.

Optimist

I'm afraid section 58 of the highways act gives the council a defence if it can establish that reasonable care has been taken. If it has in place regular inspections and a repair policy then that would be considered good enough

iosullivan

Result!

Forgot to update this for everyone - I won and got paid out - I ended up asking for all records for the reports on the road - They supplied but when I question if they can prove when the road was repaired they said no but if not on next months report we would say repaired road!
Well there solicitors sent me details asking if photos etc are of my vehicle as they beleive not - well was of another person in a different location - Sent off all my photos they wanted and then they sent me a letter for a court date - I sent back accepting the court date and then in the post a cheuqe for £680 (inc my fees to start legal action) result got all this just before christmas

Goes to show do your home work get all the details you need and fight and you get a result (road still not repaired to date)

Happy I am in taking them to court and winning!

RabbitMad

I think its disgusting that you had the audacity to blame somebody else for you not looking where you were going. You knew there was a pot hole in the road yet you hit it anyway. I am so glad I don't live in Swindon with drivers as careful as you on the road.

What are you going to do next? cross the road in this location and break you leg in said pot hole and then claim for that too?