pot hole- car damage- anyone claimed off council

as the title says

hit a massive pothole inthe road today - buckled my wishbone and car not drivable..


anyone successfully claimed off the council for pothole damage.?

[DarrenSV650S]

Is it deeper than 4 inches? If not don't waste your time




....waits for sexual innuendo.....

Not me but my Mate, brand new Astra VXR, took a chip out of the alloy wheal and popped the tyre, he got a brand new wheal and tyre.

The wheal wasnt even damaged that much, still perfectly useable. The council had the hole filed within the day

A member of my family did but I'm not too sure of the details as it was a few years ago now. As far as I'm aware you have to make sure that the council knew about it and had therefore neglected to fix a known problem. Their defense could, and probably will be, they didn't know about it so couldn't fix it. Good luck though, there are loads more about since we had all the snow.
Sorry I can't help any more.

it is massive- I took pics..

and it is on the left side of road as you approach a tiny bridge with give way the other way- a back road- unlit country road.. so a queue of cars facing you at bottom of the hill.. down the hill over the wee bridge see the pothole and boom ! in it - you cant do a thing .. unless you steer straight in to the static traffic that HAVE to give way to you - only way to miss it is to go on other side of road when no traffic there...

it is quarter mile from home so whilst I waited for RAc mandy daughter brought tea and my camera and I took pics.. and ued torch as a measure- willgo back in morning and take more pics. called police local number and they said they will inform the highways- me said it needs a warning-! or there will be a head on fatality .. but - nothing.. just a log number for me for insurance..

so RAc man putspace saver on.. as it is a bent wishbobne etc etc fouling onthe inner of the alloy- space saver - it misses. and me have to be off to the alfa garage tommorow and call the council etc etc etc/.

having just done the same with Stirling council and the £800 damage to the bike.
Claiming compensation will only happen if the council leagally has to. Quoting from my letter - "You must prove that the council was at fault. Usuallu you need to show that the council did not take reasonable care broke a contract or did follow a written law. The council must maintain certain roads and pavement. However you are not likle to prove liability if they operate a reasonable inspection systems to identify defects."

Mines then has the cheek to say that at last inspection there were no defects - so last inspection must have been about 3 years ago and they say that a repair was carried out the same day which I also know is bull*** as i went to the same car park at GM2 two weeks later and the hole was still there!
do it yourself first see what they say and then get a lawyer.
Take pictures in the next coupel of days too with an international paper with the date clearly shown - it means least you can prove how long it took to fill!

Good luck

[rowdy]

Quiff, check out this website www.potholes.co.uk , some useful advice on there about this subject.
Heard about it on a radio phone in show the other week, some people saying there councils seem to pay out without too much bother, others having to take it to court, including one bloke who caused £4000 worth of damage to his three week old bmw, and went back the next day to photograph the pothole only to find a police car had hit it and caused similar damage to the patrol car.

Did a similar thing myself the week before Christmas. Hit a pothole around a manhole cover at night, couldn't see it. The following day the pothole had been filled in. All seemed ok with the car, but the tracking had been badly put out of line, and it wrecked the inside of the tyre. Went to get a new tyre fitted and the tracking sorted about a week later and discovered the wheel had been cracked on the inside edge. All in all about £400 damage, but I've no way of proving it's the councils fault.
At least you were able to photograph the pothole, and have a police log number.

cheers all..

had already registered on potholes UK.. look at cw2 area- and wistaston green road .. I marked it up.


my brother is a solicitor so it may help..

however unfortunate, they cant be everywhere at once, sure if told and then not fixed in a reasonable amount of time then they should be liable, otherwise its a case of keeping your peepers peeled.

good luck!

[Bluepete]

Should have gone to specasvers!

Pete