Pothole damage whats claimable ?

Bear

Bear

Bear

Soldato
Joined
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The other half accidently drove down into a rather large pothole the other night and was complaining the car didnt feel right. I checked the car and saw that the tyre was flat.

I thought it rather strange that a pothole could cause a puncture and when I tried to pump it up, you could hear the hissing. So today I took the car to the local tyre place to get it sorted and there s a huge kink in the wheel which was where the air was leaking from. So the tyre guy fits the spare on for us and when he was torquing the wheel nuts up he finds one of the rubber bushes on the lower arm/wishbone is knackered as its split and the rod that the bush sits round just slops about (VW Polo).

Ive heard stories that the council try and get out of paying for everything more often than not, so what is usually claimable ?? As I see it they need to replace an alloy, a tyre and fix the lower arm/bush.

Subsequently the large pothole now has cones round it and a sign telling you to go round it.
 
You may be able to claim for the tyre but the bush would be down to wear and tear...one good bump wouldn't of knackered that...
:)
 
Unless somebody has reported the pot hole previously I don't think they have any requirement to reimburse you as they are allowed a specified length of time to do the repair iirc
 
jon.bda said:
You may be able to claim for the tyre but the bush would be down to wear and tear...one good bump wouldn't of knackered that...
:)
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Its possible but it had a full service a couple of weeks prior to that so it would have been picked up.
 
Doonhamer said:
Unless somebody has reported the pot hole previously I don't think they have any requirement to reimburse you as they are allowed a specified length of time to do the repair iirc
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Someone must have, else they wouldnt have put cones round it.
 
Measure the pothole dimensions as that is key to you being re-imbursed with some boroughs.

Claim for the whole lot - you should be ok.
 
Depends on the council, each seems to be a law unto themselves. Take pics (use something to show scale), write in with a copy of the reciept for any work you had done or estimates if you're waiting and see what happens but don't hold your breath. From what I recall once a pot hole is reported they have a specified ammount of time to rectify it.

Now don't take this as an attack on your OH i'm playing devils advocate here but think about it from the Highways Agency pov: If this pot hole is bad enough to cause this level of damage then surely it's big enough to see and she would have noticed and avoided it if she was driving at an appropriate speed and paying attention, if it was unavoidable and able to cause the damage you describe then surely following such a noticable impact she would pull over shortly after and realise her tyre was deflating/deflated and not continue to drive, either changing the tyre herself or having someone else do it. The fact she appears to have just thought the car felt funny and continued to drive doesn't exactly make her out to be the most aware of drivers or give credability to her thinking the impact was significant enough to warrant closer inspection of her wheels at the time. The final question that normally puts pay to any claim was that if it was that bad then surely she would have reported the incident and pot hole location at the time or at least on the day. Your post doesn't state she checked the tyre or reported the pot hole, and that's probably going to be the sticking point with any claim.
 
Dogbreath said:
Did she drive through the cones then?
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Nope she drove through the pothole during the night time, there were no cones round it at that time and wasnt any for a day or two.

Avalon: As I said, it was in the dark but yes you are right, she should have reported it. The puncture was a slow one and the large kink in the wheel was on the inside of the wheel so couldnt be seen. Dont worry Im not taking it as an attack on her, women arent exactly mechanically minded well mine isnt thats for sure. Stupidly she drove it the next day with the semi flat which was when she noticed there was something wrong with the car. She told me that evening and I sorted it out the next day, so it covered three days till we found out the damage.
 
Bear said:
Nope she drove through the pothole during the night time, there were no cones round it at that time and wasnt any for a day or two.
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Then it comes down to whether it had been reported before, and if the council had taken action within a reasonable time.
 
Dogbreath said:
Then it comes down to whether it had been reported before, and if the council had taken action within a reasonable time.
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Its all immaterial now as Ive just went up to take some photos and they've filled the hole in. I think lesson learnt for the missus, pay more attention to your car and act more quickly, unfortuantely women (well mine isnt) arent very good at these sorts of things. Had she told me the night that it happened I could have sorted it, instead of leaving it a few of days. Fair play to the council though, they acted pretty quickly to have filled it in in a few days. As a side note, the hole that was filled in was 3.5ft long by 2ft wide :eek:
 
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Well after thinking all was lost, we got a cheque through the post from Three Valleys Water for nigh on £400.

It was all a bit of a carry on. After writing a letter explaining everything, taking photos of the damage and sending the reciept of the cost to fix the car, sending photos of the filled hole, the council then sent us a form to fill in to provide details of where the hole was, what was the damage was with reciepts/quotes and to write a description of where it happened and draw a picture.

We sent everything off again as they requested and they sent a letter back saying it was refered to Three Valleys Water. A few weeks later we got the cheque.

So there you have it, you can actually make a claim for compensation even if you dont have a picture of the hole before it has been filled in and still get a pay out.
 
Bear said:
We sent everything off again as they requested and they sent a letter back saying it was refered to Three Valleys Water. A few weeks later we got the cheque.
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Result. Private companies making money for shareholders out of public services should be made to live up to their obligations.

Councils on the other hand are non proft, and funded by us, so claims paid out by them are in effect paid by you and me, before anyone gets too trigger happy in this sueing culture. My attitude with them is... you want better services, then pay more tax, and vote for the guy who proposes tax increases. You can't have your cake (voting for lower taxes) and eat it (claiming afterwards when their service doesn't live up to your expectations).
 
Just to play devils advocate to the above, shouldn't we advocate spending taxes better before we raise them. I would love to get hold of a government department budget and rip it apart to see how much money went where, because I'm sure lots is wasted.
 
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