Has anyone successfully claimed from a council for pothole damage?

Howard

Howard

Howard

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Last night I hit the mother of all potholes which has wrecked one of my tyres. The wheel is buckled very slightly on the rear lip, but the seal is fine. There's just a hole in the tyre where it's hit the sharp edge of the pothole, so fingers crossed the wheel is still usable - one of my other wheels is slightly buckled in the same way but it's balanced out so as to not be causing any ill effects.

Anyway, has anyone successfully managed to claim from a county council for damage of this ilk? I understand from some online research that I'm probably in for a bit of a fight. Is there anything I should or should not do?

I'm off out to get some photos of it shortly.


In the mean time, I'll be off to get two new tyres tomorrow morning. What a thoroughly exciting early Christmas present :rolleyes:

It wouldn't be so bad if the spare wasn't a poxy space saver.
 
Beerbaron said:
I think you will only be successful if the council is aware of the pot hole and didn't fix it.
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Some councils will try their best not to payout. They'll find some excuse to use against you.
It's the council job, to screw the public. They don't give two rat **** if your car gets damaged.
 
You're not having much luck, speeding tickets and now potholes, the council really have it in for you!

Is there any 'official' information around what you can/cannot do to claim if a pothole kills a tyre/wheel? Been lucky enough to not even cause any serious damage from potholes but I'm sure it is getting far worse as having to avoid huge craters seems to be the norm rather than the exception these days!
 
Yup. Filled in a form from their web page detailing what happened with pictures and a receipt for replacing the alloy wheel. A cheque arrived a few months later for the full amount.

You will have trouble claiming if you can't prove loss, so you'll need to get the alloy replaced and have a receipt to prove what was done.

Councils have a pot of money for this kind of thing, if they still have some left :p
 
yes - took 16 weeks and some back and forth letters but I sucessfully got back the cost of 2 wrecked tyres.

Get pictures of the pothole - take a measuring tape to show the width/depth of the hole in your pictures etc.

Take pictures of the surrounding area/parked cars etc as this will help highlight the difficulty of seeing the pothole etc.

Get local garage who replaced the tyres to invoice the full cost of them, plus they may add a bit of detail about why the tyres are ruined (i/e burst, damaged side wall etc)

I completed a claim form for local council, sent in the pictures etc. They then had to carry out a road survey, send that plus my claim form to their solicitors, who tried to fob me off with £200 total payment (i claimed for £400 - 2 x tyres were 18" run flats).

They tried to say that they would only pay for the cost of the tyres in terms of the useage they had had to the point they were damaged. I.e they were 9 months old so they reduced the cost of the tyres from £200 to £100 each.

However when I pointed out that I could not replace the tyres for less than £200 a tyre, i.e NO 18" run flats at £100, they eventually settle for the full £400. Took ages but got there in the end.
 
When I had my X-Type I ran over a large pair of pot holes (real close together), Cracked both front left and rear left Alloys, so I got a form off the Council road services and filled it in and included a letter to explain the situation in more detail along with pictures I took of the two holes with a ruler inset to show the depth, then included a quote for two new wheels from Jaguar, which was £260 per wheel and a copy of the bill I got for the Four new third party alloys I got instead, sent it all in and within a few weeks got a letter claiming they admit no responsibility but included a check to cover the cost of my new wheels. :)
 
Thought I'd bump this, I got a pay out of £182 after the council referred my claim to Kier Group. It wasn't the full amount I claimed for but it covers the cost of the knackered tyre plus a good chunk of the other tyre that *technically* I didn't need to replace, so it's not unreasonable and I'm happy with that.
 
I believe years ago Fifth Gear covered this subject, probably all changed now, but in the episode it came down to taking pictures, taking measurments and all that.
 
I have a lot of experience.
Evidence is key, lots of photos of the damage, the defect and the condition of the surrounding road, and also the type of road is important.
The Council will try to use a statutory exemption that they didn't know about the defect, so you have to show that their inspection and repair routine was inadequate for a road so busy and in poor overall condition (previous repairs, crazing, ejected aggregate etc..)
 
Forgot add, when I went to take a photo the following morning, it had been filled in! Typical. I took a photo of the repair anyway and sent off a huge envelope of all the required information, maps, receipts for tyres, etc., which I think all helped get somewhere.
 
I had a puncture from a pothole the a couple of weeks ago. I phoned them when I got home, and notified them of the hole, and asked to make a claim. I then popped to the location after work to take some pictures, and saw the crew leaving the area as I arrived. They had fixed it. So evidence was gone?!
Not sure how else to proceed :(
 
PMKeates said:
A brand new repair is pretty obvious, and evidence that they deemed it necessary of repair due to the damage it could cause.
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Yup, I took pictures of the repair, but have been abroad all but three weekdays over the last month, so not go round to filling out the paperwork. Will see what happens I suppose. Nothing to lose really!

I have a pretty good relationship with the garage that did the replacement for me, so i think I will be able to get anything i need from them in regards to reason for replacement/current wear levels.
 
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