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Claiming off council for road surface damage
M0neysav3r
Posts: 242 Forumite
Hi,
As the title says I am attempting to claim off the council for costs incurred as a result of an accident, basically I hit a pot hole (bad one where the side of the road has disappeared!) whilst travelling down a country lane and swerved to avoid ending up in the ditch and hit an on-coming car.
Obviously this will go as my fault but to be honest I feel that if the road wasn't damaged then the accident wouldn't have occured.
I am only TPF&T and therfore my vehicle (which has been written off) isn't covered, so I have had to pay the recovery / storage / disposal costs and the cost of a replacement vehicle.
Does anyone have any advice for claiming off the council or am I just wasting my time on this one?
Any comments welcomed
As the title says I am attempting to claim off the council for costs incurred as a result of an accident, basically I hit a pot hole (bad one where the side of the road has disappeared!) whilst travelling down a country lane and swerved to avoid ending up in the ditch and hit an on-coming car.
Obviously this will go as my fault but to be honest I feel that if the road wasn't damaged then the accident wouldn't have occured.
I am only TPF&T and therfore my vehicle (which has been written off) isn't covered, so I have had to pay the recovery / storage / disposal costs and the cost of a replacement vehicle.
Does anyone have any advice for claiming off the council or am I just wasting my time on this one?
Any comments welcomed
:j Mortgage Free!! :eek: )
Generally trying to cut back where possible :j
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Comments
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I believe the fault in the road has to be reported and then if they don't act on it you can the make a claim if damage occurs. They cant be responsible if they didnt know the pothole existed.
Would you have caused less damage going into the pothole than swerving into the path of the other car?0 -
I did go into the pot hole, thats what caused me to swerve. It's not a pot hole as in a circle of missing tarmac in the road, its basically the road disappears for a section about half a meter long, the solid white line at the side of the road (showing you where the tarmac ends and the mud starts) disppears as the tarmac has come away from the road.
The road is a countrylane so poorly lit and I just didn't see it.
I understand that maybe they wasn't aware of the damage but they've repaired a similar section in the same road a few months back, do you think the whole road would have been inspected at this time?
Cheers for your reply.:j Mortgage Free!! :eek: )Generally trying to cut back where possible :j0 -
DaisyFlower is correct, in order for the council to be liable you would need to prove that they were negligent in not acting to repair something that they were aware of, or that was reasonably foreseeable.Gone ... or have I?0
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Damn council!
It still needs reporting though to prevent the same thing happening to someone else!
Thankyou:j Mortgage Free!! :eek: )Generally trying to cut back where possible :j0
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