Help with pothole appeal to council please

avgjoe

Hello

I hope you can help.
I drove in the early hours of the morning along a main 30 road coming off a 50 road in wet conditions and hit a very large pothole.

This resulted in a burst front right tyre and I needed to get roadside assistance and a new tyre.

I took photos and submitted a claim via the council website but they have denied my claim saying they have inspected the road quarterly so are not to blame even though the pot hole was known.

Any ideas how to appeal this successfully?

This is what they have written
"It is not always the case that someone is to blame as a result of a defect being present and does not automatically make the Council, as the relevant Highway Authority for Hertfordshire County Council liable for any damage sustained as a result of it. For a claim to be successful it is necessary to show that the Council has failed in its duty to maintain the highway
The Highways Act 1980 requires that as the Highway Authority, the County Council maintain all roads under its jurisdiction. Inspections are therefore carried out at regular intervals, although the frequency depends upon the type of road. After checking with our highway records we can advise that at this location, inspections are carried out Quarterly.

All statutory inspections of the location have been undertaken; most recently the inspection undertaken before your incident took place on the 10/11/2025.

Hertfordshire Highways operates a robust maintenance policy and is responsible for managing and maintaining one of the busiest networks in the country. Further information regarding Hertfordshire County Councils Highway Maintenance Policy can be found on our website www.hertfordshire.gov.uk (defect management approach).

In view of the above we consider that the County Council has complied with our statutory duty as laid down in the Highways Act of 1980 (Section 58) and do not consider that there has been a breach of duty. Given the above, I am unable to offer the compensation that you have requested. "

Mildly_Miffed

They're right.

Car_54

OP, you describe it as a "main" road, which is a meaningless term. The fact that inspections are only quarterly suggests that it is in fact a very minor road.

MattMattMattUK

avgjoe said:

Hello

I hope you can help.
I drove in the early hours of the morning along a main 30 road coming off a 50 road in wet conditions and hit a very large pothole.

This resulted in a burst front right tyre and I needed to get roadside assistance and a new tyre.

I took photos and submitted a claim via the council website but they have denied my claim saying they have inspected the road quarterly so are not to blame even though the pot hole was known.

Any ideas how to appeal this successfully?

This is what they have written
"It is not always the case that someone is to blame as a result of a defect being present and does not automatically make the Council, as the relevant Highway Authority for Hertfordshire County Council liable for any damage sustained as a result of it. For a claim to be successful it is necessary to show that the Council has failed in its duty to maintain the highway
The Highways Act 1980 requires that as the Highway Authority, the County Council maintain all roads under its jurisdiction. Inspections are therefore carried out at regular intervals, although the frequency depends upon the type of road. After checking with our highway records we can advise that at this location, inspections are carried out Quarterly.

All statutory inspections of the location have been undertaken; most recently the inspection undertaken before your incident took place on the 10/11/2025.

Hertfordshire Highways operates a robust maintenance policy and is responsible for managing and maintaining one of the busiest networks in the country. Further information regarding Hertfordshire County Councils Highway Maintenance Policy can be found on our website www.hertfordshire.gov.uk (defect management approach).

In view of the above we consider that the County Council has complied with our statutory duty as laid down in the Highways Act of 1980 (Section 58) and do not consider that there has been a breach of duty. Given the above, I am unable to offer the compensation that you have requested. "

Have you informed your insurance company? The rules about claiming from councils are very prescriptive, so they are almost certainly correct, however when you push the claim they will contact your insurer to report you have had an at fault accident, which all councils do seem to do. When they do this your insurer will contact you and ask why you have failed to report an at fault accident and that can have potential issues. For clarity you were in an at fault accident as you have hit a static hazard. 

Car_54

MattMattMattUK said:

avgjoe said:

Hello

I hope you can help.
I drove in the early hours of the morning along a main 30 road coming off a 50 road in wet conditions and hit a very large pothole.

This resulted in a burst front right tyre and I needed to get roadside assistance and a new tyre.

I took photos and submitted a claim via the council website but they have denied my claim saying they have inspected the road quarterly so are not to blame even though the pot hole was known.

Any ideas how to appeal this successfully?

This is what they have written
"It is not always the case that someone is to blame as a result of a defect being present and does not automatically make the Council, as the relevant Highway Authority for Hertfordshire County Council liable for any damage sustained as a result of it. For a claim to be successful it is necessary to show that the Council has failed in its duty to maintain the highway
The Highways Act 1980 requires that as the Highway Authority, the County Council maintain all roads under its jurisdiction. Inspections are therefore carried out at regular intervals, although the frequency depends upon the type of road. After checking with our highway records we can advise that at this location, inspections are carried out Quarterly.

All statutory inspections of the location have been undertaken; most recently the inspection undertaken before your incident took place on the 10/11/2025.

Hertfordshire Highways operates a robust maintenance policy and is responsible for managing and maintaining one of the busiest networks in the country. Further information regarding Hertfordshire County Councils Highway Maintenance Policy can be found on our website www.hertfordshire.gov.uk (defect management approach).

In view of the above we consider that the County Council has complied with our statutory duty as laid down in the Highways Act of 1980 (Section 58) and do not consider that there has been a breach of duty. Given the above, I am unable to offer the compensation that you have requested. "

Have you informed your insurance company? The rules about claiming from councils are very prescriptive, so they are almost certainly correct, however when you push the claim they will contact your insurer to report you have had an at fault accident, which all councils do seem to do. When they do this your insurer will contact you and ask why you have failed to report an at fault accident and that can have potential issues. For clarity you were in an at fault accident as you have hit a static hazard. 

It would indeed be an at-fault claim, but not because it involved a static hazard. To insurers, a claim is at-fault if they cannot recover their costs, regardless of who is "at fault". 

facade

The last one of these threads that I read (was it on here or reddit?) the OP had been sent the inspection schedule and  the reporting log, which showed that the hole had been reported the previous day (or earlier that day, I forget) along with the legal position - not liable.

As long as there is proof that the last inspection prior to the hole's appearance was within the Council's own schedule, that the schedule is reasonable, and that there hadn't been sufficient time between the first report and the vehicle damage for them to effect a repair (according to their timescales- a 2' deep hole in a major NSL route gets fixed before a 2" deep one on a side street) then they are not liable.

Small claims'ing them will fail as they have a robust defence to the claim and will only cost you more money in fees.

eskbanker

avgjoe said:

I took photos and submitted a claim via the council website but they have denied my claim saying they have inspected the road quarterly so are not to blame even though the pot hole was known.

Are you saying they've admitted that the pothole was present when the previous inspection was carried out?  If so, how long was it between inspection and your impact with it, and did it become larger over that time?

avgjoe

I'd probably need to FOI to get more information, but the hole when I hit it was very large. The hole if I chose the right pothole on that road from their tracker was reported 19.12.25 and 'noted for future reference'. I hit it 12.1.26 

eschaton

That would probably just be classed as a dimple in the road, not a pot hole. 

avgjoe

eschaton said:

That would probably just be classed as a dimple in the road, not a pot hole. 

Not to be contrarian, but it's much larger overall and also deeper towards the top edge. I could post more photos but not sure that would help the thread? 

eschaton

avgjoe said:

eschaton said:

That would probably just be classed as a dimple in the road, not a pot hole. 

Not to be contrarian, but it's much larger overall and also deeper towards the top edge. I could post more photos but not sure that would help the thread? 

Sorry, it was more a joke due to the state of the roads these days. 

I hit a pot hole myself last year and it cost me a tyre/£150. As annoying as it was, I valued my time and effort required to try and put in a claim more than that.