[Closed] POT HOLE CLAIM

No direct experience but received wisdom says photograph it (with something that indicates the scale of the hole) before they get a chance to fill it in.

No experience but I recall something about checking the fillthathole website (by the CTC) if it's on there the council should know about it and therefore if it's not filled in you might be able to claim.

(the above could be wrong but I'm sure some helpful person will be along soon)

Yeah - screw the taxpayer.

[url= http://www.fillthathole.org.uk/ ]http://www.fillthathole.org.uk/[/url]

Does the pic/pose on that site look strangely familiar 😉

Is that work safe. 😯

I clipped a nice new jagged kerbstone in my car, in Cambridge, blew a hole in the tyre and dinged the alloy beyond repair. Put in a claim with the council who passed it on to the insurers. I had alot of photo evidence backed up by quotes for the replacement parts - it took a year to get a cheque from them, but i got it.

Go in hard with overkill evidence.

I thought is read 'filthy hole' on first seeing it!

I did sue the local council once because I crashed as a result of large pot hole. The CTC actually managed to claim on my behalf and I got £250 as a result. That was enough money to buy me a whole new bike, but this was back in 1986 and I was only 15.

I am a tax payer, a high rate one at that (puts willy away)...and my £200 wheel is poo'd so I will be claiming milkherd 😛

I hit a pothole flooded with water. Dinged both wheels, and tore my clothing to shreds. Took lots of photos of the pothole both with and without water before submitting a claim. Council paid up quite quickly for a state organisation. Around 2 months I think.

This may sound very stupid of me to say but I can understand hitting a pothole in a car having 4 wheels and being less manoeuvrable than a bike but how do you hit one on a bike unless it is filled with water perhaps and only looks like a surface puddle I guess.

This may sound very stupid of me to say but I can understand hitting a pothole in a car having 4 wheels and being less manoeuvrable than a bike but how do you hit one on a bike unless it is filled with water perhaps and only looks like a surface puddle I guess

Because you're doing 40mph on a road bike that doesn't quite handle as well as a mountain bike?

But that £200 would be much better spent on bankers bonuses!

Because it is over 12 inches in diameter, 6 odd inches out from the kerb and I was riding at 20mph+ with cars preventing me from swerving right and it caught me out. This is in London where you get given 3 inches of room from your elbow!

I of course meant 40mph 😉

...and no it's not a fixie.

there's no reason not to 'have a go' and see if you can get some recompense, however it is usually the case ( i understand ), that if the hole wasn't reported, but they carry our regular inspections in accordance with their 'good practice', then they can't be held liable for something they didn't know about. given the recent weather it's quite possible this just opened up recently.
IME if you report a pothole they fill them pretty quick ( a week or so ), because as soon as they know about it they are obliged to fix it, or be liable.
good luck though.

Claimed for damaged tyre on my car car and got the money back can't really see that it should be any different for a bike. Although in my case it was impossible to avoid as it was on a dual carraigeway and a car was right beside me. Dunno if that matters though.

Should have bunnyhopped it! Most fun I have on my commute is jumping speedhumps.

I've done this a few times.

1. Photo the hole a.s.a.p. with something to show the scale.
2. Get bike fixed and make a copy of the invoice.
3. Write to LA with this and enclose a copy of the photo. Tell them that they have a statutory duty to keep the roads in a reasonable condition and in this instance, they've obviously failed.
4. Probably need to chase them - they pass it over to their insurers (used to me Municipal Mutual in all cases)
5. Keep chasing - I got a cheque for the full amount in all 3 cases but with the expected 'no admission of liability / in full and final settlement' rubbish.

Worked for me!

And then people moan when social security pays for refugees to live in hotels. Does nobody take responsibility for their own actions anymore? If you're that clumsy slow down Mutant.

I clipped a nice new jagged kerbstone in my car, in Cambridge,

So you got money off the council because you couldn't keep your car on the road. 😕 FFS

a Buckled wheel?

Just get it fixed & get a social life

[i]Just get it fixed & get a social life[/i]

Do you get a free social life with every wheel repair at your lbs?

Anyway when it happened to me I called the council and they have a dedicated helpline. Very helpful and things were settled within 2 months. I could have course have rammed the car beside me instead of hitting the pot hole.

Right, I'm going to claim against the NHS next time I get a cold.

Isn't this a forum for mountain bikers who regularly get out and ride rufty tufty bumpy trails?

I'm not knocking the fact that highways should be kept in good condition but are people no longer responsible for their own actions?

Nice to see people taking things to the extreme for the sake of ridicule. I pay my taxes like (and more than many of) the next man, yet the council seem to be unable to repair the roads despite having been forwarned of the holes in many cases. They are responsible for keeping the roads reasonably well, and a hole big enough to buckle a bike wheel is pretty big (I've ridden my road bike over some nasty stuff and it's never buckled). Having known a few people "on the inside" of council road repairs they seem to be all for claiming, as the more it's claimed for the bigger their bit of the budget gets next year to fix things preventatively. Having claimed for some significant parts of my cars suspension after a pothole in Glasgow actually BENT my cars shock absorber(!) when I couldn't move in a dual-carriageway queue of traffic and got a letter back saying it was my own fault for not swerving around it (it was too large to swerve without entering other lanes significantly!) I threw the book at them and got the lot paid for (I'd originaly only moaned that it had put an egg in my tyre!).

Warton [- Nah dude - i was jacked off cos i had to change the wheel in the pouring rain. Coupled with the fact the area was a building site with very poor lighting/no white lines/cones littered everywhere - someone had to be responsible. We all pay road taxes to ensure roads are suitable to drive/ride on, and insurance too - why wouldnt i??

[i]Right, I'm going to claim against the NHS next time I get a cold[/i]

Can you explain how that relates to claiming for a bust wheel? I can't see a connection.

how about learning to bunny-hop?

Dead easy on a roady when clipped in especially? . . . No? 🙂

I must be missing something. If someone can help me out that would be great.

So I'm riding along and I hit an obstacle. It can be anything, I dunno, a pothole, matchbox, grid, car, ****wit, whatever.
I damage myself or my bike and get about chasing the relevant individual for recompense. Splendid, I've got the money for my broken rim, all is well in the world.

Hang on, no, I effectively sued the council, they've now got 200 quid less to fix potholes with. Oooh, they're even less likely to fix it now.

Maybe I should have looked where I was going and taken responsibility for my own actions? That's what sensible people do, right?

Put it down to experience, learn to fix the buckle yourself, then move on.

Or commute on an MTB to avoid these issues.

Its no wonder local councils have no money to fix the roads when there are a stream of fuds who are suing them because they can't take responsibility for their own actions. As the previous poster says, learn to fix the wheel or pay someone to do so, I'm sure you can afford it being a higher rate tax payer.

We all pay tax (Road Tax) to ensure the roads are fit for purpose. No one is sueing the councils - meerly claiming from their (the councils) own insurance.

If you bought a brand new frame from a LBS, got it home and found during the build that there was a ding/alignment problem with it, would you take it back for a swap/refund? Is it fit for purpose?

As Coffeeking said - preventitive maintainence should be where its at. Trouble is, even if the council have dozens of complaints it still doesn't get fixed.

We all pay road taxes to ensure roads are suitable to drive/ride on

but you weren't on the road! you were on the pavement!

Coupled with the fact the area was a building site with very poor lighting/no white lines/cones littered everywhere

Slow down then, and concentrate more! honestly, if you can't keep a car on the road, you've got no one to blame but yourself!

I can see how they wouldn't have enough money to spend on fixing potholes when they are spending millions on putting in "speed cushions" and islands in middle of the road which serve to pinch cyclists against the kerb. And cycle paths that end just when you need them. Cyclists are bottom of the food chain. Suing will raise awareness and they might even begin to consider cycles when designing roads.

The key thing with suing for pothole damage is could / should the council have been reasonably expected to know about the pothole and have repaired it?

Sometimes the answer will be yes, sometimes no. It depends how long the pothole has been there and what is it cause and how important that road is

A friend of mine did sheffield council when he came off due to a pothole that mangled his bike, cracked a tooth as he fell, etc... It'd been there for >1year and had been reported before. He got ~£5k compensation IIRC, even though he'd only sought to refund his repair costs/dental treatment, etc.
He took photos with a ruler in the pic to show measurements, and got statements from people that lived there on how long the pothole had been there and submitted it all himself.

http://fwd.five.tv/fifth-gear/videos/consumer-info

This should help, a piece on fifth gear about potholes and claims.

Hang on, no, I effectively sued the council, they've now got 200 quid less to fix potholes with. Oooh, they're even less likely to fix it now.

It's about changing peoples priorities, or highlighting faults. And most of the time they'll claim from insurance so the 200 dent is never 200 from the budget. The previous contacts I've had with the council suggested that they'd effectively leave it as long as physically possible before repairing potholes, and physically possible related to the number of complaints and whether the claims out-priced the costs of repair. They play cost-benefit juggling with your life/property, it seems only fair to ensure they get a reasonable view of the problem.

I'd actively encourage people to report these faults via fillthathole as soon as they find them so that the council is warned of their presence and realise there is a problem.

Anyone that rides down Chiswell St in ec2 knows about potholes. It's without question, the worst road in central london, well, actually calling it a road is some sort of joke.
It's closer to a joke than a road as it goes with some holes nearly 2 ft across and almost 6 inches deep. Undulating like some sort of off road farce.
It has been this way for years and simply gets worse, as if the council are seeing how long they can leave it before only 4x4 vehicles will be able to use it.
The entire road needs resurfacing and has almost certainly claimed a few victims in its time....absurd.

If it's cost you, take it all the way.