Help with a pothole claim....
Discussion
So I managed to hit a pothole in my girlfriends car this evening, 2008 Scirocco all standard (although suspected remap), its the first time I've had to do this so need a few pointers if possible.
The damage seems to be quite bad too, tyre burst, alloy looks a little buckled on the inside and now the car pulls majorly to the left, there is a grinding noise and a high pitched squeal from the steering when moving off...not good!
It happened on a road on the way to dinner, 60mph NSL zone and the pictures of the crator are something else (below). From speaking to the bartenders and owner it's been there months and has ruined numerous cars over that time. He did say people had tried to claim but councils had batted it between them as being the others responsibility (I'll need help in a second to identify which I need to approach as I'm not sure...)
So the pictures....that's an iPhone 4 for scale and I have size 10 feet....
I was travelling towards the camera in the above so took out the NSF, c.20-25mph I think.
the phone and my foot point in the direction of travel.
The road is unlit so it couldn't be seen in the lights
It happened here: https://www.google.co.uk/maps/search/google+maps/@... on the park road side of the picture, the bend can be seen in the pictures and I was going to The White Bear.
What council is it?
I'm thinking that it can't be cheap, nearly new 18' tyre (mid range) and over the axle if a matching tyre can't be sourced, then plus whatever is broken with the suspension (over both sides) then steering, alignment etc. so want to ensure that it is sorted and am happy to go down the moneyclaim route if I have no joy. Planning to get a pro-forma invoice from VW tomorrow and get the work done when its settled (don't have cash to get it sorted without doing it this way), can borrow another car whilst its off the road but only for a few weeks....
Any advice greatly appreciated.
ETA. the hole was deeper than the height of my phone by some margin at the edge it was against and about double the height in the middle, the pictures don't really show it too well.
Edited by kiethton on Friday 21st November 23:32
Thankyou for all of the pointers all, just off to VW now.
From a check on potholes and fix my street the section was reported as having numerous potholes on 29 July with there also being a sepearte report for this hole specifically on 10 November.
Need to check when they are required to do something by and go from there.
Also those sites say Surrey was notified so looks like its their area.
iPhone was all I had for scale
From a check on potholes and fix my street the section was reported as having numerous potholes on 29 July with there also being a sepearte report for this hole specifically on 10 November.
Need to check when they are required to do something by and go from there.
Also those sites say Surrey was notified so looks like its their area.
iPhone was all I had for scale
Thanks for the pointers guys, the VW garage (although they couldn't fully assess it) have said it'll total well over £1k to fix, making it an insurance job really
Currently borrowing a car (Croyde, the timing was rather good!) but need hers fixed ASAP but don't want to claim on insurance whilst it's a cost we can't afford to shell out for now with no certainty of recovery. Is it something an accident management co. would take up on our behalf? Have tried calling the insurance co. to see if there is legal cover but unfortunately not.
With CFA only 2 weeks away I could do without this additional hassle!
Currently borrowing a car (Croyde, the timing was rather good!) but need hers fixed ASAP but don't want to claim on insurance whilst it's a cost we can't afford to shell out for now with no certainty of recovery. Is it something an accident management co. would take up on our behalf? Have tried calling the insurance co. to see if there is legal cover but unfortunately not.
With CFA only 2 weeks away I could do without this additional hassle!
They need the car in to give the full breakdown however the things broken obviously are:
Alloy front (not checked the rear for buckling yet but this went through it and all)
Tyre front (or pair if they can't match)
Suspension &/or tracking - pulls to the left, have to have about 20* of right lock to keep it straight, wonders around the road
Steering column squeaking
Grinding noise & vibration when driving along
The £1k+ was just the word of the service guy.
It can't be driven ATM either due to the above, with my car off the road too we are lucky she can use her mum's for the week but don't know beyond that and don't wan to go adding uncovered hire cars hence the AMC with the added benefit that they'll sort the council out too.
From checking the legislation the road should be inspected every 1 or 3 months depending on what type of secondary link road it is, and based on the severity and risk of the hole, combined with the above, be repaired within 5 days, but is subject to their judgement.
Fix my street said 'numerous potholes around the corner' on 29 July, 4 months ago and there was a specific report of this hole on 10 November with confirmation that they were notified then. I'm thinking that they have a distinct liability here too...
Think I'm going to call them on Monday morning with this and see what they say, hopefully they'll then give an indemnity to cover the costs at VW directly....
Alloy front (not checked the rear for buckling yet but this went through it and all)
Tyre front (or pair if they can't match)
Suspension &/or tracking - pulls to the left, have to have about 20* of right lock to keep it straight, wonders around the road
Steering column squeaking
Grinding noise & vibration when driving along
The £1k+ was just the word of the service guy.
It can't be driven ATM either due to the above, with my car off the road too we are lucky she can use her mum's for the week but don't know beyond that and don't wan to go adding uncovered hire cars hence the AMC with the added benefit that they'll sort the council out too.
From checking the legislation the road should be inspected every 1 or 3 months depending on what type of secondary link road it is, and based on the severity and risk of the hole, combined with the above, be repaired within 5 days, but is subject to their judgement.
Fix my street said 'numerous potholes around the corner' on 29 July, 4 months ago and there was a specific report of this hole on 10 November with confirmation that they were notified then. I'm thinking that they have a distinct liability here too...
Think I'm going to call them on Monday morning with this and see what they say, hopefully they'll then give an indemnity to cover the costs at VW directly....
Well, I've been back...
It measures c.110cm long and 66cm wide, the front face is about 12cm tall and near vertical, whilst its about 15cm deep at its worst.
This is also interesting, it has been marked up for repair, but obviously quite a long time ago:
It's pretty obvious that it was marked in excess of the 5 days they have to fix it (secondary link road, high risk to damage - my assessment based on guides)
It measures c.110cm long and 66cm wide, the front face is about 12cm tall and near vertical, whilst its about 15cm deep at its worst.
This is also interesting, it has been marked up for repair, but obviously quite a long time ago:
It's pretty obvious that it was marked in excess of the 5 days they have to fix it (secondary link road, high risk to damage - my assessment based on guides)
Thanks all, insurer had been a consideration...
Only issue is that the renewal is next week, a quick quote with a "fault claim" takes the premium to £1.2k pa. (from <£450) especially with the resultant reduction in NCB.
I'm quite lucky that in a previous guise I worked for a bank progressing administrations so I'm not afraid of a legal fight, just got to try and weigh everything up. Other issues are that my car is broken, hers is now not driveable, she can borrow one for a week and that's all and every VW garage has at least a 10 day wait to get a slot, even for just an estimate. She is also only a nursery nurse so money isnt something there is a lot of to just get it fixed.
How long does a council have to repair damage following a report? - this is the crux
It was first reported in July and again 12 days ago (and this is only what I can find publicly), my interpretation of the guidelines is they have 5 days based on subjective severity of damage or potential for same (8" deep on a NSL, unlit road favoured by cyclists, motorcyclists etc.) and location (a link between between villages)?
Only issue is that the renewal is next week, a quick quote with a "fault claim" takes the premium to £1.2k pa. (from <£450) especially with the resultant reduction in NCB.
I'm quite lucky that in a previous guise I worked for a bank progressing administrations so I'm not afraid of a legal fight, just got to try and weigh everything up. Other issues are that my car is broken, hers is now not driveable, she can borrow one for a week and that's all and every VW garage has at least a 10 day wait to get a slot, even for just an estimate. She is also only a nursery nurse so money isnt something there is a lot of to just get it fixed.
How long does a council have to repair damage following a report? - this is the crux
It was first reported in July and again 12 days ago (and this is only what I can find publicly), my interpretation of the guidelines is they have 5 days based on subjective severity of damage or potential for same (8" deep on a NSL, unlit road favoured by cyclists, motorcyclists etc.) and location (a link between between villages)?
just stumbled across this which may add some further weight....
(can you tell I'm pissed off, haha)
It turns out that a number of the holes were reported as 'many potholes, marked for repair, forgotten' which ties in with the faded red paint....
This also ties in with another of the bartenders in the pub saying it'd been there for years...
(can you tell I'm pissed off, haha)
It turns out that a number of the holes were reported as 'many potholes, marked for repair, forgotten' which ties in with the faded red paint....
This also ties in with another of the bartenders in the pub saying it'd been there for years...
Well to add some closure it's now resolved, received a cheque for my total costs, less about £20 last week.
Didn't have to push too hard, council demanded the most obscure bits of documentation in what seemed like triplicate and then passed them onto a contractor to settle liability.
When it was seeming like time to chase them up as it had been a good month waiting, the cheque came through the post....result!
Only slight thing is that a recent service revealed the rear alloy is bucked also, not ideal and likely done at the same time but wasn't picked up when the other was being sorted...guess it's going to happen again sooner or later though an I can deal with that then...
Didn't have to push too hard, council demanded the most obscure bits of documentation in what seemed like triplicate and then passed them onto a contractor to settle liability.
When it was seeming like time to chase them up as it had been a good month waiting, the cheque came through the post....result!
Only slight thing is that a recent service revealed the rear alloy is bucked also, not ideal and likely done at the same time but wasn't picked up when the other was being sorted...guess it's going to happen again sooner or later though an I can deal with that then...
Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff