At the weekend my daughter hit the mother of all holes in busy country lane. In no way her fault and I've now found out it has been reported to
the council many times in the last few weeks.
The damage is a buckled alloy wheel, tyre looks OK but will probably replace just in case.
We were thinking of claiming and started to go through the process but then had a nasty thought that it might go against her car insurance, and at 19
that is the last thing you want!
So do I stick a used wheel and tyre on for £55 and just swallow it?
If we go the insurance route it will be a claim against the council for about £260 + tracking check for a new wheel and tyre from Ford.
Big worry is if her car insurance history, which is blemish free at the moment, gets this added as a no fault claim which can in a lot of instance
lead to a jump in premium.
Hi I thought you could just claim direct with the council on this?
I had a dust cart blow a hose next to my car and hydralic oil all over my car, i claimed direct with the council, you will need photo evidence of the
hole etc, if it has been already marked by the council with paint for repair they wont follow on the claim, but if nothing you may have a chance,
[Edited on 23/3/16 by INDY BIRD]
some good info here
http://www.theaa.com/breakdown-cover/pothole-damage-how-to-claim.html
Claim directly to the council. They will probably try and bat you off but don't give up. If they knew about it and did nothing to prevent damage to vehicles then they don't really have much of a 'defence'.
They were asking for the details of the vehicle car insurance, I suppose I could direct them to the website for checking a vehicle is insured or tell
them to sod off as none of their business!
I'm not one to claim on such things normally but in this instance the hole is very deep, even saw a couple of the local eastern Europeans sitting
next to it with their fishing rods!
[Edited on 23/3/16 by zetec]
[Edited on 23/3/16 by zetec]
Your claim is against the Council direct, not your insurance company - don't give them any information about your insurers! I had a similar incident 8 years ago; went through a mahoosive pothole and tore holes in the sidewall of 2 tyres (luckily the wheels remained undamaged, somehow). When I tried to claim they fobbed me off with excuses, but the best thing you can do is take measurements of the length, width and depth of the pothole, check the location (ie. is I t within the white lines of the road itself) and check they are outside of the Council/Highways Department size guidelines for repair. If they are, then pursue the claim. The Council will still refuse to pay, and you'll end up threatening them with Small Claims Court action to recover costs of wheel, tyre, and cost of Court - then they'll normally offer you a "without prejudice" settlement.
Don't give up and push them hard until they pay up! I once knackered a good tyre on a pot hole and never claimed. It was a company car and the tyre was replaced with no cost to me other than time to go to Kwik Fit.
Didn't realise it wasn't possible to claim if the pothole was marked. That explains why the road I drove down yesterday looked like the surface of the moon. Each 10cm deep 30cm wide pot-hole had a nice white circle around it. It look like the paint had been there about six months if not longer!
Do NOT give them your insurance detail, you don't have to. It has nothing to do with them, it's not an accident and it's not a
notifiable event for insurance.
Call the councils roads team and ask for a claim form. I've done it, it works. It takes a few months.
quote:
Originally posted by BenB
Didn't realise it wasn't possible to claim if the pothole was marked. That explains why the road I drove down yesterday looked like the surface of the moon. Each 10cm deep 30cm wide pot-hole had a nice white circle around it. It look like the paint had been there about six months if not longer!
Not say they get a lot of claims but they have a dedicated section of their website for claims...
I successfully claimed against one of my local councils for damage caused by a pothole. The hole had been reported previously and not filled in so I
got a friend to come with me to witness the hole and help me take photos showing the dimensions including the depth and the position. I sent these
pictures to the council alone with photos of my buckled wheel and (assumed) tyre damage. It took me nearly 6 months of letter ping-pong but eventually
I got £260 in damages. I probably had to write the original claim plus around 3 follow-up letters with some additional information and justifications
for the damage repairs but it was no big deal really and worth it in the end. This was around the late 1990's so maybe things have changed and
this was in Scotland.
Good luck!
quote:
Didn't realise it wasn't possible to claim if the pothole was marked. T
Regarding marking the hole, I thought it was the other way round, IE the council can't be done for damage they don't know about?
From that AA link;
quote:
It's important to understand that they do have a statutory defence as they cannot be held liable for a defect they do not know about, either because it has not been reported to them or because it has not been picked up in their own road condition surveys.
quote:
Regarding marking the hole, I thought it was the other way round, IE the council can't be done for damage they don't know about?