Pothole damage.. should the council pay?

[Mudball]

Yesterday.. It was pelting down.. HID drove the car over a pothole/ditch (well within speed limit). As the road was waterlogged, she did not see the hole.

Anyways that punchered the tyre. Had to get recovery out who then took her for tyre replacement (no spares tyre in the car). She could not go to work and had to cancel her appointments. So she was out of pocket on the tyres and lost income.

Who is to blame? Can I ask the council to pay. Acc to the recovery truck driver, we should ask the council to pay. Never gone down the American way of life but asking if anyone has seen this happen?

 

[Imurg]

It's becoming more common and in my opinion it's justified in circumstances like this.
There should be a claim form or similar on your council's website.
It's their duty to keep the roads in reasonably good condition.
Ours a shocking and have been for months.

 

[Wolf]

Council should pay and in many cases will. MiL got 2 tyres in one hit last year near Cranwell, there were some forms to fill out but she definitely got 1 paid for not sure if they paid for both tyres though.

Roads around here are horrendous at moment if you were a tourist driving round here at moment you'd think everyone was a drunk driver with the amount of swerving going on.

 

[williamalex1]

I read somewhere, that if you can prove the pot hole has already been reported to the council and not repaired, you can claim, but need dated pictures of pot hole.

 

[Slab]

If circumstances meet the criteria, I've read about claims for costs to repair/replace tyres/wheels. Not sure indirect things like income has any basis though

 

[HomerJSimpson]

I would go back and take pictures today and then claim. Nothing ventured and it's a cost you shouldn't have incurred

 

[USER1999]

I had this recently, but after reading in to it, decided not to bother. I would have needed to go back and take pictures, preferably with a ruler to show the depth, on a 50mph road. I would also need to make a freedom of information request to see the councils maintenance schedule, and so on.
Some councils are easier than others though. To me, I would rather they spent their budget on repairing pot holes, than recompensing me for tires.
I don't think you will get any more than the cost of the repair out of them, and I am guessing that if the tyre was in any way worn, this will be pro rata'd to what wear is remaining.

 

[clubchamp98]

The roads in this country are a national scandal.
Just think how much in tax the treasury must take from motorists.?
What percentage do they use on the roads?
But will spend 106billion plus to get a guy in a suit to London 20 mins faster.
We all use the roads ,and potholes cause crashes.
Definitely ask for compensation if it’s damaged your car.

 

[Lord Tyrion]

I drive on rural roads quite a bit and see a lot of pot holes. I do my best to report them, our council has a simple place on its website to do that, as once reported they have to repair them or they become liable for damages that occur after that, they will have a few days grace. You can't expect them to know where every pothole is so they are reliant on people reporting them.

To the OP, contact your council, give them the info and see what happens.

 

[Junior]

I've been paid out twice. Once I was able to take a picture, the other time I couldn't as the road was so busy. The council knew about the pot hole as they had to repair it. All I did was identify to them where it was on googlemaps.

The frustrating thing is that they seem to be throwing up a lot of red tape and dragging out the process to put people off claiming. The process should be on their website.

 

[SocketRocket]

Why has the condition of our roads deteriorated so much. I cannot recall there being pot many holes in the roads back in the 1960s/70s or even 80s, so why now? There must be so many more motorists paying road tax but I guess these extra cars are also wearing out the roads faster. There does seem to be a relationship between population increase and public service standards falling.

 

[USER1999]

May be back then councils weren't so stretched financially, and could look after the roads better.

 

[Blue in Munich]

The major cause of potholes is poor reinstatement by utility companies rather than any defective workmanship by the council.

The biggest issue lies in making the bean counters see the value of employing extra inspectors to catch them in the two year guarantee period after the work is done and holding the utilities responsible.

I wouldn’t be surprised if in the right circumstances you didn’t have a claim against the utility company.

 

[Bunkermagnet]

There has always been potholes on our minor roads, but it just seems they are left longer to get bigger before they are sorted. The more noticable issue is potholes and craters on the main A roads and motorways. The number that we have and are left around my part of the country is horrendous, and it's not just tyres and suspension damage they cause but windscreens too due to the flying debris from them as they deteriorate. The further issue on motorways and multiple lane carriageways is that this isn't confined to the inside lane either.

 

[Wolf]

There has always been potholes on our minor roads, but it just seems they are left longer to get bigger before they are sorted. The more noticable issue is potholes and craters on the main A roads and motorways. The number that we have and are left around my part of the country is horrendous, and it's not just tyres and suspension damage they cause but windscreens too due to the flying debris from them as they deteriorate. The further issue on motorways and multiple lane carriageways is that this isn't confined to the inside lane either.

The M2 down towards Canterbury and the old Dover Road were always horrendous

 

[SocketRocket]

I've also noticed that the cats eyes in roads are either non existent or just don't have reflectors in them now.

 

[Imurg]

Probably posted this before but..
A few years ago I was listening to an expert on tarmac giving a radio interview when potholes were a serious nationwide problem.
He said that he could make you a tarmac that would virtually never wear out but you'd be replacing your tyres every 6 months or he could make a tarmac that would need replacing every 6 months but would make tyres last,virtually, for ever....
He also said that any hole in the road, no matter how small, has to be plugged within 7 days. If you do that and replace an area 1 square meter around it, as long as the repair was of reasonable quality it would last 10-15 years.
More than 7 days, especially if it's been wet, without being plugged and you have to replace an area 10 times the size to eliminate the possibility of reoccurance within a year. The moisture gets into the ti y fissures and works it's way through.
If I think of where most of the potholes I see day in day out - they are all coming up in the same places ..year after year.
They're simply not being repaired properly, being done quickly and on the cheap.
And within a year..they'll be back.

 

[Lord Tyrion]

Probably posted this before but..
A few years ago I was listening to an expert on tarmac giving a radio interview when potholes were a serious nationwide problem.
He said that he could make you a tarmac that would virtually never wear out but you'd be replacing your tyres every 6 months or he could make a tarmac that would need replacing every 6 months but would make tyres last,virtually, for ever....
He also said that any hole in the road, no matter how small, has to be plugged within 7 days. If you do that and replace an area 1 square meter around it, as long as the repair was of reasonable quality it would last 10-15 years.
More than 7 days, especially if it's been wet, without being plugged and you have to replace an area 10 times the size to eliminate the possibility of reoccurance within a year. The moisture gets into the ti y fissures and works it's way through.
If I think of where most of the potholes I see day in day out - they are all coming up in the same places ..year after year.
They're simply not being repaired properly, being done quickly and on the cheap.
And within a year..they'll be back.

The typical repair here is a wagon with tarmac (or whatever is black and gunky) in it, two blokes, one with a spade shovelling it in the hole, the other tapping it flat. Temporary is not strong enough to describe what they do. That hole will be back again within 6-9 months.

 

[Tashyboy]

If no one says anything and just lets it go, there’s no problem is there coz no one has said owt.?
When in actual fact they are a disgrace. Reading imurgs post about how potholes should be repaired. There was a case in Mansfield where workmen were seen dropping tarmac in holes and stamping it down with there feet. It kinda kicked off.The councils response was they are not permanent repairs and will be repaired at a later date. Really. Does it help,that a lot of roads are now repaired by private companies as that work has been taken away from councils.

yup claim from the council it is there responsibilit.

 

[Hacker Khan]

May be back then councils weren't so stretched financially, and could look after the roads better.

This 10 times over. I work a bit with councils in the field of road maintenance and they are under ever increasing pressure to save money so inevitably they do not have enough money to fix them all and when they do they sometimes have to use material that is not of the highest quality. Put simply, if you want very good quality roads then pay more tax and then ensure potholes is a vote winner so the government gives enough money to the local authorities to fix them promptly and properly. I suppose we could try melting down some commemorative Brexit 50ps to start with