pot hole- car damage- anyone claimed off council

[timwilky]

Having bust my leg last year on a pot hole, it is my understanding that councils have a statutory defence against claims, unless you can prove they were negligent in not identifying and repairing the defect.

In my case they were able to prove the road was inspected 9 months earlier and no defect found. At that point the legal people said I had no chance of a claim unless I could prove the defect was older and they had been negligent in their inspection

the council will have a maintenance schedule set up for all its roads, it will ha e an inspection schedule where they record how often a certain road needs to be inspected and when it was inspected, they will also have a policy on intervention, eg, if a pot hole is 25mm then it should be monitored at the next inspection, if its 50mm and off the wheel track its say 28 day repair, if its 50mm and in the wheel track its a 24hr repair, things like that, you should be able to find out when the last inspection was carried out and if it was recorded as a defect then,

just a word of warning, local authorities now are very much aware of their responsibilites and keep very good records.

the council will have to have not carried out its repairs to its own schedule to be liable, also the ammount of salting thats been needed in the past month will have accelerated any faults within the surfacing, pot holes can open up overnight and quickly become dangerous, the council cant be held liable for a defect that they ouldnt reasonably have been expected to know about or repair within a reasonable time, they know this and play on it,

and i should know , i work for a highways authority..............good luck.

[keith_d]

Yep - you've only got two chances.

1) Council was informed and failed to rectify the problem in a accordance with Highways Agency recommendations.

2) Council failed to follow the guidelines from the Highways Agency regarding inspection and repair.

I hit an elephant trap which was camouflaged by a puddle and wrecked both left hand wheels on my ST220. But I don't expect to get anywhere with the council, so I just bought some wheels on Ebay.

Keith

Anyone know if there is a time limit on claims?

cheers again folks.. beenreading up on it - and yea I need to apply for a Disclosure of information.. after they standard refused my claim under section 52 nonsense paragraph tos$$ers so it says..


Blue pete- couldnt avoid it- me off to take daylight pics in a min so me show you laters- just for interest.

well well well.. been to take pics.. just-

they have filled it in!

8pm last night I went down it- well 7.20pm.. reported it to police at 8pm they told highways and it filled in by 10am today - so surely that good for me?? says they deemed it bad enough to fill in. but they still have their 3 month checks and "it wasnt that bad last time we checked" due dilligence I suppose.

I damaged my push bike, and also my leg when my tire blew out on a big pot hole. Informed the council and took photos. They inspected the hole and sent me a claim form. Months later I get a letter back telling me that because the council didn't KNOW the pot hole was there, they had done their duty by ATTEMPTING to keep the roads in good condition so I wasn't entitled to compensation. I bet the legal guy who spent time working out how they could get out of it cost more than my £15 claim for a new tyre

its nowt to do with the highways agency to be honest, the HA are responsible for trunk roads and motorways only, they have no poweres or influence over local authorities who are the the "highways authority", the local authority sets its own inspection frequencies and as long as they arent something stupid like "we will inspect this carriageway by speedboat every 1000 millenia" then theyre generally in the clear, it is true that they stick pretty close to highways agency standards, but amazingly these standards are only guides for non HA organisations.

Dave, you would think that them fixing it is an admission of guilt , but in reality they would argue that once they wer informed of the defect then they acted promptly and carried out a repair,

one deffinate thing to ask, if you have to for a freedom of information request, is how often repairs have been carried out on that section of road, wether there is any planned maintenance for that section,

if you can prove that road is generally in poor repair and is regularily being repaired, perhaps in the same location, then you can argue that the Highway authority is aware of the condition and is attempting to save money by attempting temporary repairs,
this is especially applicable if for example the same man hole keeps sinking and they just keep patching it up rather than replacing the cover and frame or the brickwork on the gully or chamber.

cheers Mark . appreciate your time there- ..

me off in minute to putinmy complaint in writing- deliver by hand.

pop me pics up in a min

here you go- clearly see the pothole position.. the road.. the giveway for oncoming cars.. the damage to my car.. and the fact they filled it in.. ha ..!

you are right nemo i thought ahaaa admission of guilt filling it in... maybe not then- I have legal protection on my insurance and they said they would assist me if it has to go further.. .. we will see



approach this bridge - pot hole after the bridge on the left .. cars on right give way





















then this morning- at 9.30am.. filled in.. ( my accident was 7.30pm last night !)