[UK] Pothole damage


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Hello All,

I've just spent £315 on repairs to my car, all of which were pothole related.

The local council has been utterly shocking in recent years when it comes to sorting out the roads and this last year has been the worst so far.

It's annoying enough having to drive on roads covered in massive potholes, cracks, and ripples and but then having to pay £205 in road tax just after receiving a £315 bill for repairs is going too far.

Has anyone else had the same issue?

Is it possible to reclaim the cost of repairs from the local council?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

fishing_in_pothole.jpg

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What would you like the local council to do exactly? They used to have the funds to fix pot holes in the road but now there priority is to fix any crack, tile, or hole in the sidewalk (or on a road crossing). As if they do not do that, then they get sued for ?4000-?10000 by someone who accidently tripped over it.

They have to pay for someone to walk around every single street in britain and monitoring the state of the sidewalk and if anything is slightly wrong then they need to pay to get it fixed within 24hours.

So, your road tax doesnt go towards fixing pot holes or the roads, it goes into people's pockets who accidently tripped on sidewalks or goes towards fixing those sidewalks. The priority is not on fixing the roads as it should be, as you cant sue them for pot hole damage to your car. No Win No Fee lawyers are to blame for the pot holes, not the local council.

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Erm, its not the tax payers fault that people can sue. Council should have some sort of insurance against claims most companies do thesedays.

Blame it on the powers that be, they pay to have a road laid and it looks shiny for about a week then the gas companies come and dig it up, then a week later the electricity board comes and digs it up, then some other utility, if they all got together and planned all the work out there would be no need for roads with massive potholes.

Its the councils fault for not fixing roads and pavements, everyone pays council tax, its up to the council to sort these issues out, you cant blame someone for wanting compensation for something the councils have neglected to fix.

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You can indeed claim damages off them. I have read several articles on people that did exactly this.

One person wrote a letter, and threatned all sorts of crap. And the pothole was filed in the next day!

Also, it is worth checking out http://www.fixmystreet.com/ you enter your complaint, and it is automatically processed by the site and sent off to your council.

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Same thing happened to my mate, I work for the council so I knew who to contact (Or at least I found out) I gave him the email. He sent an email and then some pictures etc. Because they "Handle public money" He needed to submit his claim in writing. He will most likely get it back (Cost of the repairs)

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I work for an insurance company although not on the front line. On our message board in work one of the phone agents asked about this (I guess a customer was querying). It is possible to claim the money back but you'll need to prove the pothole caused the damage, and also prove the council knew (i.e you or someone else told them) and neglected the pot hole for a significant amount of time.

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bear in mind this is what we pay road tax for, to maintain the roads. The roads on my daily commute are in an incredibly bad state and these are big main roads.

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