pot hole damage claim whats your thoughts

[kevinivtec]

hi all  just finally had a reply from devon county highways regarding a claim i put in for a new tyre and tracking  damage caused by a pothole!!!  this is what happened!!! beware
I was driving back from north devon to plymouth on the evening of 23rd dec 2019 i hit a pothole that took out the side of the tyre, lucky i had a space saver tyre as the glue/ tyre repair kit honda gave me would have been useless, or i would have had to wait for the AA, I changed the tyre and limped into tavistock ATS 4.15 pm said to the guy can you help me with a new tyre??? what time do you close he said 5pm but i am going home as i have had enough today i please for his help  for a new tyre but he refused and started to shut up shop and told be to come back a 9am the next day, i then told him what an ****** he was being, i then the next morning christmas eve got into ETB tyres in plymouth they could not have been more helpful new tyre (DAVANTI) AND TRACKING RE-SET £86 they told me to put in a claim to devon county highways what a nightmare procedure!!!!
1) you have to possibly have a degree in computer science you have to report the defect online and verbally to obtain a reference number
2 download and print out the claim form the complete each box ( failure will make your claim invalid)
3 if the damage is over £100 you have to submit  three quotes
4 you are asked to submit a photograph with a measure of the depth of the pothole ( not practical to drive back to north devon from plymouth)
5 they req a GPS CO ORDINATE IF POSSIBLE
6 they want a copy of your current mot
7 a current insurance document for the car
8 Proof of ownership
9 current registration document
10 a receipt for the tyre damaged where and when you purchased it make size etc
11  receipt for new tyre and any repair if under £100
when sending it off they then inform you that it will take a minimum of 90 days and if you are turned down there is no appeals procedure
So  about three weeks ago (now march) i had an acknowledgement of my claim and then heard nothing until a week ago,
i had an email  that was basically incomprehensible with legal jargon to say no!!! the reason why was  basically they have a provision in place to repair road defects and this was checked  a month previously and there was none and the defect i reported was repaired 2 weeks after they said the courts would uphold their decision and that was it!!!
I replied to say i was having none of it and wished to appeal on the grounds that they accepted liability by acknowledging the defect and repairing it!!! they came back a week later informing me they only work in the office on fridays (present virus situation accepted) and forwarded me a copy of the worksheet for the repair!!! but still saying they have a process in place that is adequate and would be approved by the courts, I enquired about small claims but they will not undertake anything under £100 the AA legal service were a complete and utter waste of time as well (thought they looked out for the motorist??? so what do you think of all that guys??/ any ideas or just write it off? anyway keep safe everyone!!

[sparky Paul]

I they have a schedule in place for checking the roads on a regular basis, and have evidence that it has been carried out to the schedule (I'm sure they will have, whether it's been done or not), I think you have had it.

Basically, they are only liable once they know about it, i.e. reported, or scheduled checks.

[John Ratsey]

One problem is that a lot of potholes go unreported as many councils don't make it very easy. Plus, you may not be sure which council is responsible. One way round this problem is to use https://www.fixmystreet.com/ which will send the report to the relevant concil. There's also the benefit that any report using this site is in the public domain which removes the possible excuse about not being told.

[sparky Paul]

If you do have a legitimate claim, navigating the council's procedures for making a claim is like wading through treacle. I've been through all that before, years ago - unsuccessfully I might add. If you want to force the council to court, you'll have to show that you have already exhausted the council's complaint procedures, and all it does is ensures that the council have already got their defence ready.

They may even be able to claim force majeure under the current situation.

Best thing to do, as John says, is report every pothole... around here though, you could be sat on the computer for days.

[culzean]

A photograph of the pothole,  with a ruler if possible to show the depth and extent of it is the best thing, if you don't have a ruler use a coin ( something of a known size ) to give a scale to the photo.  Also a photgraph of the tyre damage.

Was the perimeter of the pothole marked with coloured paint ? If it was the council were certainly aware of it and had marked it.

Dashcam footage of the pothole and if GPS on dashcam you can get a co-ordinate off the video.

You have to feel sorry for councils as they probably get hit with thousands of bogus claims every year from chancers - which means they will only accept a claim when accompanied by a lot of detail,  not just a vague 'it was on the A38'.

[MicktheMonster]

As far as I know (I am frequently wrong, in my house anyway) you only have a valid claim if the council responsible have been negligent in their responsibility to maintain the road.
As it is not practical to check every road every day, they have a schedule of inspections of all the roads they are responsible for at reasonable (in their opinion) intervals, with timely repairs of any damage found (or reported by the public).
If they have fulfilled their schedule of inspections and repairs, they will argue that they have not been negligent in their upkeep of the road and impossible for them to have known about the pothole.
If this went to court it is likely a court would accept this defence.
Annoying, but that is generally how it goes.

[ColinB]

As far as I know (I am frequently wrong, in my house anyway) you only have a valid claim if the council responsible have been negligent in their responsibility to maintain the road.
As it is not practical to check every road every day, they have a schedule of inspections of all the roads they are responsible for at reasonable (in their opinion) intervals, with timely repairs of any damage found (or reported by the public).
If they have fulfilled their schedule of inspections and repairs, they will argue that they have not been negligent in their upkeep of the road and impossible for them to have known about the pothole.
If this went to court it is likely a court would accept this defence.
Annoying, but that is generally how it goes.

Which is why it is important to report road damage, even if your car wasn’t damaged. If it’s been reported, and the local authority hasn’t repaired it, then the next guy will have a stronger case. In my experience, councils are pretty quick to repair once they know about a hole.

[culzean]

Thing is, potholes large enough to wreck a tyre do not just appear overnight,  they normally take a while to get to that size - I often see large potholes with yellow or other brightly coloured paint around them - and i see the same ones many times,  so the council mark them and then don't fix them....

Living in a fairly rural area I normally stay away from edge of road more towards the centre,  but not easy when a vehicle comes the other way ( and the road / lane is only just wide enough to warrant a white line down the centre ) and you have to keep left,  that is when a pothole appears that sometimes you have trouble avoiding,  and just have to grit your teeth,  cross your fingers and relinquish your normal atheist frame of mind ....

[Jocko]

There is a pothole near my garage which was painted yellow, faded, was repainted and is starting to fade again!

[culzean]

Local councils do need to be held to account, on top of council tax they get government money to look after roads - especially potholes, but if their 'duty of care' is anything like their handling of household waste no wonder there is a problem with potholes.  Most of the rubbish fly-tipped  and costing millions a year to clean up starts its life in the care of local authorities and is handed over to shonky fly by night contractors for disposal,  oh they dispose of it all right, down country lanes and in farmers fields - you used to be able to apply for a waste carrier / disposal licence online without even basic checks - and local authorities have been found handing over household waste collected by their binmen to contractors at ridiculously cheap prices for disposal.  Then the council tapayer has to pay all over again to get the fly-tipping cleared up.  If they handled the waste properly then fly tipping would drop 90% overnight and be the province of only builders rubble etc.     

It has not even been a bad winter and still potholes all over the place, with the roads nice and quiet now and many construction firms closed down it would be an ideal opportunity to fix potholes - but they will leave it to height of summer to close off roads and temporary traffic lights.