Keep at 'em.
Cheers, Pewe
I popped and shredded a tyre on a side road in april following our bout of inclement weather, so as per the councils website, i logged the fault and
it was repaired the following week.
In response to reporting this pothole, a letter arrive din the post, with a claim form. Oh i thought, they must pay out for damages. So i fill it in
and return it.
Today, i received a letter explaining that their investigation was complete, and that the council were not negligent and so were not paying up.
This is my reply to them this evening;
quote:
Dear Miss Grant,
I write to you in response to your letter dated 2nd August 2010.
The incident in which I had sustained irreparable damage to the tyre on my vehicle was caused by an excessively large hole in the road, which I diligently reported to the council for repair, and I strongly disagree with your statement with regards to the county council being negligent for the following reasons;
Following such extreme weather conditions and the gradual degradation of the roads around Stevenage in general, ad-hoc checks of the local roads should have been carried out as a duty of care, particularly as these weather conditions were somewhat abnormal in comparison to previous years.
The particular road in question is one which I and my wife use frequently, to deliver and collect our son from Nursery nearby three days per week, as well as to gain access to the ********* ****** Park, and is generally in a reasonable state of repair. The hole only appeared following the inclement weather, and the councils negligence to inspect the roads after these abnormal conditions and in addition to the planned preventative maintenance, is the cause of the incident concerned on the 7th April 2010.
Clearly, the council has not exercised duty of care, which has resulted in the “High Volume of Claims” which you refer to in your letter to me, and also demonstrates the councils failure to observe the roads following abnormal conditions.
Please send reimbursement for the replacement tyre, which i had no choice but to replace due to the damage sustained. This will alleviate the necessity to proceed to small claims court.
I look forward to your prompt reply.
Kind Regards,
good letter. i like it. hopefully it gets you a result though. you know what councils are like...
maybe would have been an idea to send a copy of the bill for the tyre. did you get the tracking etc reset too?
[Edited on 5/8/10 by blakep82]
quote:
Originally posted by blakep82
good letter. i like it. hopefully it gets you a result though. you know what councils are like...
maybe would have been an idea to send a copy of the bill for the tyre. did you get the tracking etc reset too?
[Edited on 5/8/10 by blakep82]
There should be no question of them not paying up - they have insurance backing for these types of incidents.
I suffered a damaged alloy wheel some years back, wrote a simple letter to the council, backed it up with photos, and they paid up quite fast with no
quibbling.
- good letter - give them some stick and don't give up.
Excellent letter,polite but to the point, keep us all posted with any further developments/
I think you will find that they are not negligent if you happened to be the first to report the problem.
I have managed to get compensation for damage to my wheel and tyre in the past but on that occasion one of my colleagues was kind enough to report the
pothole a couple of days before I made my claim and since they hadn't fixed it I was able to claim against them.
Even in the above case, it took me 6 months to get my £240.
Good luck!
^^^
He is right, they are only liable if the knew about it and did nothing. The company I work for does road maintenance and thats how it work sorry.
Unfortunately they can't inspect every road every day, so there will always be a time when potholes exist, and these potholes can appear
overnight.
I think the road we look after are inspected weekly, so if a pothole appears between inspection, they unfortunately its your problem not ours.
I would continue to badger them, knowing the councils they may give up and pay out just to get you off their back.
[Edited on 5/8/10 by phoenix70]
Good Letter, Polite but to the point
Good Luck with your claim
Think councils are getting more difficult on this one and think there was a recent court case that found in favour of the council ?
Pothole info here:
http://www.potholes.co.uk/facts
quote:
Originally posted by phoenix70
^^^
He is right, they are only liable if the knew about it and did nothing. The company I work for does road maintenance and thats how it work sorry.
Unfortunately they can't inspect every road every day, so there will always be a time when potholes exist, and these potholes can appear overnight.
[Edited on 5/8/10 by phoenix70]
For them to have repaired it the following week it must have been a substantial hole. There were thousands caused by the bad weather and for them to
repair it that quickly they must have prioritised it. Perhaps you should suggest they look at their own records.
Keep at 'em.
Cheers, Pewe
Whilst I can sympathize with your damaged tyre, I can also understand the 'if no one tells us then not liable' reason.
I also hate the 'if there is blame there must be a claim' culture we have. To me this is why the councils and other bodies now stop
providing many of the services they used to provide for fear of the claim culture! Yes they may well have insurance to cover or just have a fund set
aside for these claims, but in the end we all pay taxes to them.
IMHO
Adrian
quote:
Originally posted by AdrianH
Whilst I can sympathize with your damaged tyre, I can also understand the 'if no one tells us then not liable' reason.
I also hate the 'if there is blame there must be a claim' culture we have. To me this is why the councils and other bodies now stop providing many of the services they used to provide for fear of the claim culture! Yes they may well have insurance to cover or just have a fund set aside for these claims, but in the end we all pay taxes to them.
IMHO
Adrian
I had a similar incident a few years back in sunny Essex - went through a pothole and tore the sidewall of BOTH N/S tyres. I put the spare on one,
and tyreweld the other, and limped the 6 miles home (luckily).
Next morning I went back to the scene and took photos of general road state, as well as close-ups of the pothole itself, with measurements (in a geeky
CSI kinda way). I sent a letter to the local Council who told me that they'd had the road surveyed the previous day, and no defects or bad
reports were fed back afterwards. After I told them I only wanted the cost of 2 replacement tyres, not tracking or refurb of the wheels that were
subsequently curbed, they still refused and denied any liability. I fought the decision, and told them I'd start action through the small claims
court (covers claims of up to £2k IIRC) and paid my £30 costs to get it under way.
Seems someone read the letter telling them I'd started legal action, and within 3 days of letter, I had a reply with a cheque enclosed for £210
(£90 for each of the tyres and £30 costs) if I was to stop proceedings and accept their non-admittance of liability offering to me.
Needless to say, I got what I could and dropped it.
I do understand what people mean about blame culture though, but as someone who's never driven without tax, insurance or MOT, I'm a
law-abiding citizen and feel it's only fair for genuine claims!
quote:
Originally posted by Charlie_Zetec
but as someone who's never driven without tax, insurance or MOT,
the thread title calls the council lazy, what have they done that is lazy, or are you just very very cross because they have decided against you?
quote:
Originally posted by interestedparty
the thread title calls the council lazy, what have they done that is lazy, or are you just very very cross because they have decided against you?
quote:
Originally posted by MakeEverything
quote:
Originally posted by interestedparty
the thread title calls the council lazy, what have they done that is lazy, or are you just very very cross because they have decided against you?
Both. Have you noticed the gap between the dates?
I've had a couple of tyres damaged in the past, but not claimed. I always feel I'm at least partly to blame - if I was driving at an
'appropriate' speed I would have avoided the big hole in the ground. Perhaps its because I used to ride bikes and the consequences of
hitting a pothole are much more severe. After all, if it had been a cat/dog/child stood on the road at the point where the hole was I would have hoped
to have seen it and avoided it.
Just my view
Hugh
On this basis should I send a letter to my local council warning them that if they decide to cover another road with stones (that do little but fly up
and cause chips in my paintwork) I'm gonna get all those chips done and send them the bill?
There are a good few chips on the car and about half have been caused by them gritting (which is fair enough) and laying stones on the road...
quote:
Originally posted by interestedparty
quote:
Originally posted by MakeEverything
quote:
Originally posted by interestedparty
the thread title calls the council lazy, what have they done that is lazy, or are you just very very cross because they have decided against you?
Both. Have you noticed the gap between the dates?
Right, so lazy because of the 5 month delay, and c***s because they decided theydidn't need to pay your claim, just wanted to clarify that.
How long between the pothole happening and you dropping a wheel in it?
quote:
Originally posted by MakeEverything
quote:
Originally posted by interestedparty
quote:
Originally posted by MakeEverything
quote:
Originally posted by interestedparty
the thread title calls the council lazy, what have they done that is lazy, or are you just very very cross because they have decided against you?
Both. Have you noticed the gap between the dates?
Right, so lazy because of the 5 month delay, and c***s because they decided theydidn't need to pay your claim, just wanted to clarify that.
How long between the pothole happening and you dropping a wheel in it?
I dont remember seeing the hole before, otherwise i would have reported it, but it was a sizeable hole about 6" round and 3" deep with jagged edges. It cant have just appeared overnight, but with all the ice, snow and grit thawing out, the road was bumpy anyway.
On the left of the one way road, is a row of parked cars, and the hole is in the track of the road, so was completely unavoidable.
"I dont remember seeing the hole before, otherwise i would have reported it, but it was a sizeable hole about 6" round and 3" deep with
jagged edges. It cant have just appeared overnight, but with all the ice, snow and grit thawing out, the road was bumpy anyway.
On the left of the one way road, is a row of parked cars, and the hole is in the track of the road, so was completely unavoidable. "
So you were driving on an icy, bumpy road with less than 6" clearance (since you couldn't go round a 6" hole) and parked cars down one
side which kids could run out from between, and were going fast enough to puncture a car tyre! I dont know what speed you were doing, but I've
only managed to actually damage tyres at relativly high speed.
Hugh
quote:
Originally posted by MakeEverything
It cant have just appeared overnight...
If the Council has a Pavement Management System (PMS) in place it would be worth looking at the report for that road - if it was recommended for urgent action and they did nothing you have them.
quote:
Originally posted by MakeEverything
quote:
Originally posted by Charlie_Zetec
but as someone who's never driven without tax, insurance or MOT,
Exactly.
Small claims court is up to £5k im told, but im quite happy to invest the £30 to get £50 back.
Im only claiming 80 odd quid for the tyre.
quote:
Originally posted by interestedparty
Thing is, if you hadn't see it how could anyone expect the council to have seen it? To be negligent they need to have been aware of it and not dealt with it, or to have not been aware of it and fail to make themselves aware of it (within reason).