Pothole Damage Query

DullGreyGuy

facade said:
When you claim on your insurance, the insurer can claim their payout back from the negligent third party.

They won't bother unless it caused an accident with a payout of hundreds of thousands because it will be throwing good money after bad chasing a reluctant council for a few hundred.

They will certainly bother for a lot less than £100,000+. There is an economics decision to be made but the threshold is much lower than that. If nothing else they can use a third party recovery service which costs them nothing as the service simply retains a proportion of what they recover as their fee. 

MattMattMattUK

Danny-r said:

Hi all,

Looking at putting in claim for a really deep pothole. The appropriate council have asked for letter of interest from my insurer, and they won't process without. Obviously I don't want to claim via my insurance, but is this them saying that if I don't claim via insurance, I can't claim for pothole damage?

Just to add to, I know the exact location of the pothole, but there is no pedestrian access. It's on top of a motorway with 4 entrance/exits, motorway east/west and then into a town centre and one into the hospital, it's a very busy roundabout. Not sure if I can argue this but it's really not reasonable nor safe to take a picture of the actual pothole. It absolutely cannot be done in daylight.

The issue is it is actually very difficult to claim from a council, also be aware that if you claim from the council they will inform your insurers that you have had an at fault accident, so it will impact your insurance and potentially lose you your no-claims bonus first. 

DullGreyGuy

MattMattMattUK said:

Danny-r said:

Hi all,

Looking at putting in claim for a really deep pothole. The appropriate council have asked for letter of interest from my insurer, and they won't process without. Obviously I don't want to claim via my insurance, but is this them saying that if I don't claim via insurance, I can't claim for pothole damage?

Just to add to, I know the exact location of the pothole, but there is no pedestrian access. It's on top of a motorway with 4 entrance/exits, motorway east/west and then into a town centre and one into the hospital, it's a very busy roundabout. Not sure if I can argue this but it's really not reasonable nor safe to take a picture of the actual pothole. It absolutely cannot be done in daylight.

The issue is it is actually very difficult to claim from a council, also be aware that if you claim from the council they will inform your insurers that you have had an at fault accident, so it will impact your insurance and potentially lose you your no-claims bonus first. 

By definition it's not a fault accident because the insurer hasn't paid out and if the council does then its a no blame incident too. 

Danny-r

Ok so not the answer I wanted really, the local council seem to be far more awkward to deal with. They state this.

Your insurance

You are duty-bound to contact your insurer regarding any insurable incidents, and it is recommended that you claim your own policy first. If your insurers are acting on your behalf and seeking to recover losses from the council, we will be happy to deal with them directly.

Alternatively if you wish to deal with this matter independently we will require a letter from your insurers confirming that they are not dealing with your claim. A letter from your insurers is a mandatory requirement set by the council to detect and prevent fraud. Please note the council and your insurer will also require that you have taken the appropriate steps to mitigate your loss. In this respect, the authority can only offer compensation on an indemnity basis that brings you back to the position you were in prior to your loss.

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I must say, I disagree. I believe they've blanketed incidents to include potholes. Of course you notify your insurer about larger incidents, but pothole damage? I don't think so. It feels like they're trying to put claimants off.

DullGreyGuy

Danny-r said:

Ok so not the answer I wanted really, the local council seem to be far more awkward to deal with. They state this.

Your insurance

You are duty-bound to contact your insurer regarding any insurable incidents, and it is recommended that you claim your own policy first. If your insurers are acting on your behalf and seeking to recover losses from the council, we will be happy to deal with them directly.

Alternatively if you wish to deal with this matter independently we will require a letter from your insurers confirming that they are not dealing with your claim. A letter from your insurers is a mandatory requirement set by the council to detect and prevent fraud. Please note the council and your insurer will also require that you have taken the appropriate steps to mitigate your loss. In this respect, the authority can only offer compensation on an indemnity basis that brings you back to the position you were in prior to your loss.

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I must say, I disagree. I believe they've blanketed incidents to include potholes. Of course you notify your insurer about larger incidents, but pothole damage? I don't think so. It feels like they're trying to put claimants off.

You are legally required to answer all questions your insurers as honestly and completely, that generally includes informing them when the answer to a previous question has changed, sometimes this has to be done when the answer has changed and others it is only prior to renewal; the policy will confirm. 

Most insurers will ask if you have sustained any losses irrespective if you claimed or not and irrespective of blame. On the basis you are trying to make a claim against the council for your loss its a hard thing to then honestly state you didnt sustain a loss. Would be a very quick way to a voided policy and potential CIFAS marking for fraud. 

Ultimately your choice... inform your insurers on an info only basis to get the letter and pursue the council or find the terms in your policy which states you only have to inform them at renewal and provide that instead. Unless you renewed the day before the damage happened then it wouldn't hard be for them to delay until such time that your next renewal is due and then restate their requirement for such a letter. 

Some councils outsource claims management to third party administrators that can access CUE and so they can make a record that all insurers can see that you made a claim against them just in case you "forget" to mention it going forward.

Ectophile

Danny-r said:

Ok so not the answer I wanted really, the local council seem to be far more awkward to deal with. They state this.

Your insurance

You are duty-bound to contact your insurer regarding any insurable incidents, and it is recommended that you claim your own policy first. If your insurers are acting on your behalf and seeking to recover losses from the council, we will be happy to deal with them directly.

Alternatively if you wish to deal with this matter independently we will require a letter from your insurers confirming that they are not dealing with your claim. A letter from your insurers is a mandatory requirement set by the council to detect and prevent fraud. Please note the council and your insurer will also require that you have taken the appropriate steps to mitigate your loss. In this respect, the authority can only offer compensation on an indemnity basis that brings you back to the position you were in prior to your loss.

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I must say, I disagree. I believe they've blanketed incidents to include potholes. Of course you notify your insurer about larger incidents, but pothole damage? I don't think so. It feels like they're trying to put claimants off.

There's a lot of pseudo-legal hot air in that response.  If you decide to sue me over damage I have caused you, then I don't get to impose "mandatory requirements" that you have to perform first.

But DullGreyGuy is totally correct.  If you have suffered damage to your car great enough that you intend to claim money from somebody else, then you can't honestly tell your insurance that you've had no accidents in the last year.