On sunday night i found a pothole. I saw it too late to slow down (it was night time on an unlit road) and could not swerve as there was oncoming traiffic. It has damaged my alloy big time, the question being how do i go about claiming this off the council? They dont make my alloys anymore so is it worth asking for a complete set of similar alloys? Any on ehad any experience in this?

IIRC you can complain to the council and if it has been breought to their attention before by you or another road user and they have not fixed it then you stand in good stead to file a claim and get 'some' compensation.

If the first they know about it is your complaint and proposed claim then your out of luck.......................but the next person to damage their car won't be.

take some pics with a ruler to show the size of the hole and send an estimate for damage done,they will try to wiggle out but they are liable,threaten them with small claims court and tell the local paper what a load of twossers they are

make sure you get a photo of the hole with a verifiable date, ie newspaper, in the picture

You'll be lucky mate, you should see the state of the roads up here - there is more pothole than proper surface up here!

Good luck though

locoboy is right, if its new no chance, if they knew about it, you've got a claim.

They won't compensate you for a new set of wheels, they will only give you the amount of the damage (which you will have to provide estimates for)

Hi,
I managed to claim over £260 from my local authority a few years back for damage to my wheel and tyre and as far as I know I was the first to report the problem. Similar circumstances, at night in rain and the hole just appeared beneath the car in front of me and left me no time to react.

I'll be honest, I can't remember exactly how I went about the claims process but I think I started with my local authority website and found a section dealing with road and lighting faults. What I did do was take a witness out with me to photograph and measure the length, depth and height of the hole with a ruler in the photo and I sent these photo's plus a photo of my damaged wheel and tyre to the council and demanded damages. I don't think I even had to get a repair quotation, I just found the same wheel advertised online and a new tyre. I even loss adjusted the tyre based on wear and tear although I estimated lifetime at 75% left when in fact it was due for renewal...

Oh, one other thing. If you find that the council has repaired the hole you actually hit the day after you hit it (before you have time to photograph it) then just pick another pothole and say you hit it instead. Of course this isn't what I did but I expect you'd get away with it all the same...

Net result was £260 to cover wheel and tyre. The new tyre cost me £60 odd and I had the wheel refurbished for £25 and used it as a spare... It did take 6 months of letter ping-pong before I got my money though.

Good luck,
Craig.

I just put in a claim from my local concil last week after I destroyed two alloys and tyres hitting a monster pothole up here in the borders - ouch!

Luckily I had a cou[ple of old steels at home so I'm running on them at the moment, wait and see what happens...

I did a bit of reading on the net and came accross quite a few people who succesfully claimed without evidence that the council had neglected or badly repaired the hole, but it seems to be a bit of a lottery.

Good luck!

As said before, get a mate to report the hole before you!

worth a try but if you have any luck parhaps you can get the roads cleaned round here , to much poo on them to even see the pot holes
http://www.locostbuilders.co.uk/viewthread.php?tid=58464

why didn't I think of getting a mate to report it before me!

I guy I worked with found a pot hole so big it practially ripped a wheel and whole suspension off the metro he was driving. The council is liable for damage caused by a pot hole if they knew about it the day before the incident. If you are the first person to report the pot hole, they are not liable, as far as I understand.

Poop. So I probably wont get any compensation as i doubt it has been reported before. Although to be nearly 5 inches deep it didnt appear over night. The annoying thing is my alloys arent sold anymore (TSW Alpines i think) so i cant claim for just one new one. Wish me luck.