Pothole damage to car. Council admitted liability?
Discussion
If you are prepared to get organised (pics / quotes / witnesses), gather the evidence (FOI request to council for all complaints / reports relating to that road), go through the council process (recording every bit of contact, name, date, time etc), read the relevant legislation and compare it to the council's procedures (pointing out differences) and put together a county court claim and be prepared to follow it through to judgement (attending hearing with all paperwork etc). You may then be in a position to transfer your judgement up to the high court and get the HCEO to visit the council to get your money (as the council will not pay you within any deadline as they are useless) - then you're in with a chance.
I did all the above after buckling my motorcycle's front wheel on a huge pothole causing nearly £1k's worth of damage to the bike. It took a great deal of time and effort and just over a year from claim to money in my account.
I did it as I thought I could have been killed due to that pothole (other bikers have been, on the same road with no other vehicles involved - may have been due to a pothole IMO) and am sick to the back teeth of the sate of the roads in this country. The money was a nice secondary consideration. The judge was excellent, added every conceivable cost to my claim (even the £3 can parking cost I incurred when attending the hearing).
Good luck it will be a slog - this is what the councils rely on to avoid compensating victims.
I did all the above after buckling my motorcycle's front wheel on a huge pothole causing nearly £1k's worth of damage to the bike. It took a great deal of time and effort and just over a year from claim to money in my account.
I did it as I thought I could have been killed due to that pothole (other bikers have been, on the same road with no other vehicles involved - may have been due to a pothole IMO) and am sick to the back teeth of the sate of the roads in this country. The money was a nice secondary consideration. The judge was excellent, added every conceivable cost to my claim (even the £3 can parking cost I incurred when attending the hearing).
Good luck it will be a slog - this is what the councils rely on to avoid compensating victims.
A friend of mine struck a cast iron water outlet inspection cover, which was flipped out of it's framework due to it being broken, and it hit the cars underneath so hard that it wrote off the car.
The local council would not pay a penny, and said they had carried out all relevant inspections and were unaware of the defect. And therefore had no liability to pay.
I wrote a letter explaining the situation to South East Water, and they immediately sent out a cheque for £1600. The price of the car.
I know this isn't the same situation as above, but if the defect in the road belongs to a different company, it's always worth asking them too.
The local council would not pay a penny, and said they had carried out all relevant inspections and were unaware of the defect. And therefore had no liability to pay.
I wrote a letter explaining the situation to South East Water, and they immediately sent out a cheque for £1600. The price of the car.
I know this isn't the same situation as above, but if the defect in the road belongs to a different company, it's always worth asking them too.
Don't forget, if you see a pothole, report it (I use www.potholes.co.uk) as soon as possible. That starts the clock for the council to do something about it, and opens up the possibility for someone to make a claim if it is not dealt with swiftly. Otherwise, they can hide behind the whole 'the road is regularly inspected' defence.
onyx39 said:
Ironically, this whole incident (if you ignore the fact I came home 3 days early) has only left me £40 out of pocket.
Could have been very different had the suspension collapsed in the M4 though!
So, a little update. Got a letter unsurprisingely, telling me to bugger off.Could have been very different had the suspension collapsed in the M4 though!
Sadly the initial damage seemed a lot less than I finally found, and cost, around £500, this was with me buying 2nd hand parts (it's an MG, little choice in this matter). Highly pissed off at the moment.
They would not take into the consideration the fact that it was a completely alien environment to me, on road that I did not know, and would not have had a hope in hell of identifying, when the damage only came to light hours later.
AlexRS2782 said:
22Rgt said:
Why spend £500 on a car you cant give away? Theres absolutely loads for sale for pennies which you could have got the parts from..
Ah, more top quality content from Pistonheads very own resident 1 post per thread wonder troll and Call of Duty sniper wannabe car renter 
watch him disappear again......using his stealth ninja training......ha ha22Rgt said:
Why spend £500 on a car you cant give away? Theres absolutely loads for sale for pennies which you could have got the parts from..
I'm an MG "enthusiast" and don't tend to buy "disposable" cars. Also, car is a rare colour, with only 99 made in this colour as part of the Monogram programme, which I rather like, so highly unlikely I would find another.
"Absolutely loads for sale" yes there are if you want to buy a dog, but if you want to buy a decent "collectable" one, it's a slightly different story.
Thanks for your input though, very much appreciated.
Eta: I've just re-read your post, the parts I bought were purchased 2nd hand, but I have also replaced the rear tyres in an effort to resolve handling issues.
Here's a pic of the car if anyone's interested.
Edited by onyx39 on Wednesday 18th March 21:48
onyx39 said:
xstian said:
Never mind the council claim, I would be getting that old car into a garage to make sure the rest of the rusty suspensions bolts aren't about to break. 
In all seriousness, there seems to be no damage to the wheel, so was this the work of a pot hole, or has it just highlighted a major weak point with your car. You where lucky, this could have happened doing 70+ on the motorway.
It's in the garage as I write.In all seriousness, there seems to be no damage to the wheel, so was this the work of a pot hole, or has it just highlighted a major weak point with your car. You where lucky, this could have happened doing 70+ on the motorway.
Short Grain said:
OP, Why not go to council Twitter / Facebook and local media. Seems to work wonders these days. Name names, i.e. people spoken to, signed letter etc.
Not a bad plan, and someone sent me a link to their Facebook page last night, the problem is, in the absence of a location, it's difficult to peruse it. I'm even toying with the idea of stomping up for. stank of fuel to drive back to the area, but I guess that's just chucking good money after bad.mikesalt said:
Don't forget, if you see a pothole, report it (I use www.potholes.co.uk) as soon as possible. That starts the clock for the council to do something about it, and opens up the possibility for someone to make a claim if it is not dealt with swiftly. Otherwise, they can hide behind the whole 'the road is regularly inspected' defence.
I reported 4 potholes to Surrey County Council 4 weeks ago, 2 are vechile breakers, and the other two are large, but fairly shallow, with sharp edges. None have been repaired, oh sorry, one has, badly, but 3 more have appeared near it. Reported them again, and will start phoning them daily if they don't do something about them.Gassing Station | Speed, Plod & the Law | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff