[Closed] Pothole punctures and claiming off the council

Unless the pothole has already been reported (by someone else), your chances are slim to none, and slim has just left town I'm afraid.

You're not the only one. Here's what my brother emailed yesterday from Michigan:

[i]Our weather sucks. It's a continuous minus 22 degrees C, it's constantly snowing, there is about an inch of salt splattered on everything, and all of our already crap third-world roads have completely given up. The hard-top tarmac has disappeared in sheets, and in many places the potholes have gone to 10 to 14 inches deep, some of these are actually in the wheel tracks of the motorway, some on the motorway service drives, and most of them on my way to work. Three weeks ago I went down one on a monday morning in the dark. It tore my tire right off my rim, ripped a hole in my tire sidewall and completely destroyed my rim. $700 later, I had a new rim and tire, and a front-end tracking alignment done. I filed a claim to the City Council where it happened so we will see if they are good for their word or not. Back in December i had 4 new rims and 4 new tires, and the new rims are already getting bent. Jeez, VW obviously specced these rims for smooth, professionally laid, properly maintained German roads.[/i]

*this* is a pot hole;

Just going through the same process. Bloody great hole and raised manhole cover ripped my tyre completely this week.

£OOO down the swanny.

I sort of feel your pain, but to be honest I'm not a fan of councils paying out for this sort of thing, the weather is probably costing them a fortune and the last thing they need is to have to deal with loads of small claims for avoidable damage.

I know avoidable might be a bit contentious, but you must have hit them quite hard to puncture both tyres, maybe slow down a bit when going through water/can't see the road surface?

I also might be biased, but a member of my family had to leave their job in highways due to stress and depression, in part due to having to deal with thousand of moaning, yelling, aggressive, threatening members of the public.

I feel your pain pondo.

The roads around Cheltenham are so bad I'm continuously swerving to miss the potholes, and in turn probably hitting more! I had to replace the spring in my front right shock as it was annihilated by hole - whether it was one bit hit or continuous stress put on the shock by potholes I don't know, but the garage said I'd be extremely lucky to get any money out of the local council for it. I did a little research in trying to claim and came to the conclusion I'd be best off just taking the bill and forgetting about it. If it happens again I might try, but unfortunately I doubt I'd get anywhere.

I dread to think what's going to happen if it freezes properly - there's so much water in the ground now that it's bursting out of the roads in places. It's going to wreck the roads, much worse than in a normal cold snap.

I tried to claim off my council a few years back with no luck, they said it was nto there on the last "inspection" and so their insurers said no deal.Report in the Metro today saying that Glasgow and Edinburgh councils had paid out huge amounts in damages to car owners as a result of potholes.

The pothole needs to have been reported for you to claim compo.

Report the pothole (or get a friend to do it) and wait 48 hours before getting it fixed at the garage and pretend it happened after it had been reported.

yourguitarhero - Member
The pothole needs to have been reported for you to claim compo

No, they need to show they have a reasonable inspection and repair regime - not the same.

Report the pothole (or get a friend to do it) and wait 48 hours before getting it fixed at the garage and pretend it happened after it had been reported.

You mean like defraud the council and their insurers?

I got reimbursed for a wheel repair and replacement tyre from Glasgow City Council, took a bit of chasing and I believe its actually their policy to reject all claims when they first submitted

It can be done, depends on circumstances though.

When it happened to me, I went back to where it happened, took pictures (including measurements of the depth etc) then sent a letter along with the photographic evidence and receipts for the work I had done (new tyre, new alloy wheel (cracked), retracking and suspension checking) and they paid up - Leeds City Council.

Thanks for the feedback, folks - bit of a "suck it and see", then.

I sort of feel your pain, but to be honest I'm not a fan of councils paying out for this sort of thing, the weather is probably costing them a fortune and the last thing they need is to have to deal with loads of small claims for avoidable damage.

I know avoidable might be a bit contentious, but you must have hit them quite hard to puncture both tyres, maybe slow down a bit when going through water/can't see the road surface?

Yeah, know what you're saying, chap - but this bit of road ALWAYS has flooding issues, and consequentially always has a rubbish surface. The bit where mine was was resurfaced last summer, and it's been submerged for months, so I dunno if it's reasonable to expect people to report it (not that "reasonable" carries much weight...). The damage to both tyres was done on the inside shoulder, think I kind of slipped off the side, as it were, but it dented the (fortunately steel) rim, too. The thing is, it's not like it's off to one side - it's a pretty wide and quiet road (big favourite for learners to practise three pointers) but because of the flooding, people only drive straight down the middle of that bit, and I could only have been a couple of feet to the left of centre - the pothole was probably about where your right-hand wheels would be if the road had been dry. And, rather acarily, about where you'd be on a bike if there was something coming the other way... Speedwise, I was following someone else, and I know it's easy to say, but I reckon, if I was doing 20mph, that was as fast as I was going.

My car had to have an offside front spring at the last MOT, and I'll never know for sure but I'm pretty positive the ploughed tarmac nature of this bit of road was a major contributing factor.

Alloy rims and low profile tyres make such things much more likely, not really the councils fault if everyone wants to drive around in cars unsuitable for the roads.

It is easy to blame the authorities, but some aspects of cars have been optimised for performance and made them unsuitable for some aspects of real world driving.

It's not low profile, by any stretch -
[img] [/img]

Fiat Panda, it's got big bouncy clown tyres. 🙂

MSP #fail 😉

Maybe not in this case, but I do think a lot of cases are due to low profile tyres and alloy rims.

This has just appeared on the M2

[img] [/img]

lucky it wasn't under the carriageway 😯

People need to slow down more

having got another pot hole puncture on the bike I am going to claim the cost of an innertube off the council (Gloucestershire CC/Cheltenham BC) The stretch of road has ALOT of holes, I avoided some but got caught by another, it is also unlit and badly drained. I did submit a claim for the same stretch last year when it finished a rim, but was rejected.

That they have done Sweet FA in the following 12 months suggests negligence to me. They do there inspections, I did a FOI request, they also have lots of complaints about the holes, they just choose to set their idea of a pot hole way above what is IMO acceptable.

@Kedmun, GCC say a pothole isn't a pot hole until it is over 300mm across and 40mm deep I seem to remember so don't feel obliged to repair anything less!

People need to slow down more

Horses are much better at dealing with rough ground, perhaps we could go back to them

People need to slow down more

20mph, absolute tops.

We have some horrendous potholes down here in Surrey and it does my head in. I do my best to avoid them but I know plenty of people who seem to continually hit them head on, some of which just don't seem to see them and then moan about it immediately after.

Friends have successfully claimed for replacement tyres in recent months. The council seem well aware their roads are sh1t and just cough up.

Dented and buckled a rear Ksyrium rim last Tuesday hitting a pothole at 20 mph. Instant snakebite puncture in a brand new Continental lightweight tube 🙁 . It was the first ride out after the rear mech went into the spokes and the wheel was rebuilt. Tyre pressure was 110psi checked before the ride. Maybe I have a claim!

Id have sympathy with the council and weather if they fixed the pot holes properly.

But no, they just put some tar in them and squash it with a spade. Then a few weeks/months later another one appears next to it.

The roads where I live are a patchwork of badly repaired holes. If they did a good job once they would save money in the long run - but hey, dont expect the council / government to do a proper job, or think in the long term.

but this bit of road ALWAYS has flooding issues, and consequentially always has a rubbish surface.

And you still plough through it?

Interesting tactic.

Not sure if all councils have the same policy but we had a claim rejected recently by Herefordshire council because they had complied with their inspection and repair schedule. The pothole my wife hit had been picked up on a prior inspection but they were still within their 28 day window to fix it. Pot(hole) luck then whether you get compo or not :-/

have a look at http://www.fillthathole.org.uk/hazards/map

to see if your pothole has already been reported

if not report it in anyway

And you still plough through it?

Interesting tactic.

Well, a poor surface is a poor surface - you just drive accordingly and dodge the worst. But the hole that done for my tyres... There was no way of knowing it was there - it's had standing water on it for months. Gwaelod - cheers, had a look but it's not on there. It is now. 🙂

I know avoidable might be a bit contentious, but you must have hit them quite hard to puncture both tyres, maybe slow down a bit when going through water/can't see the road surface?

annebr - Member
People need to slow down more

sbob - Member
but this bit of road ALWAYS has flooding issues, and consequentially always has a rubbish surface.
And you still plough through it?

Interesting tactic.

pondo - Member
People need to slow down more

20mph, absolute tops.

Some sanctimonious bullshit going on here. 🙄
Do any of you actually drive cars? Especially after dark? One would reasonably be able to drive a car at or below the posted speed limit without having tyres and wheels trashed, and possibly suspension, thus risking a serious accident due to a tyre blowing off a rim.
I mean, seriously, are you idiots advocating everyone drives around with a bloke in front carrying a red flag, just to absolve the highways authorities from their legal obligation to maintain the bloody roads?
Since when has the victim of poor road maintenance become the guilty party for driving at a legal speed?
I've trashed wheels hitting broken road edging full of water in the dark, driving a metre out from the verge, because it was absolutely impossible to see a hole in the road. I guess that was my fault for having the cheek, the [i]audacity[/i] to execute my legal right to drive my car on the public highway at a time of my choosing, in the dark, in inclement conditions, in order to actually have a life.
Something some of you ought to get; there's currently a sale on at the Life Shop, I suggest you rush down there and get one. 🙄

I know avoidable might be a bit contentious, but you must have hit them quite hard to puncture both tyres, maybe slow down a bit when going through water/can't see the road surface?

What's sanctimonious about that? I thought it was a sensible suggestion, even the OP didn't take offence, so not sure why he needs you as his back-up man.

are you idiots

nice

Something some of you ought to get; there's currently a sale on at the Life Shop, I suggest you rush down there and get one

What an imaginative and witty thing to say, are you high-fiving yourself in the mirror [i]right now?[/i]

I wonder how the balance of proof/responsibility lies where a pothole has been repaired, but then goes again

most of the 'patch' repairs they seem to do round here fail again within a couple of weeks - I'd be guessing that a poor repair job would leave them open to compensation?

I would suggest the first thing to do if you encounter a pothole is report it to the Highway Authority. Either directly or through one of the third party websites. Record the reference number you are given and make a follow up call seven days later.
Secondly, I would refer someone concerned to Section 56 of the Highways Act 1980. And the also, the standard defense of S. 58.

Some sanctimonious bullshit going on here.

It isn't bullshit that I have never punctured a tyre or damaged a wheel from a pothole, underwater or otherwise.

Thinking you can blindly drive along at the posted limit and not risk damage or injury?
There's your bullshit.

Be persistent. Take pictures. Receipts for damage. Threaten small claims. Be persistent.

We pay VAT, tax on our wage, tax on our savings, tax on money we leave to family when we die, council tax, tax on fuel, tax on cars annually, tax on new cars, tax on bits we buy for cars.

If the Council leaders, Quangos or other body leaders say they cant afford stop paying themselves six figure salaries.

I'd certainly register a complaint but whether they'd pay is a different matter. Finite budget so if they are paying one person they are not doing something else.

Well Wandsworth council are making cuts to services but their FD is on a 1/4million a year+ package. Theyll find the money.

As a motorist you pay to use our roads. As a taxpaying cyclist you pay to use our roads. We arent charities are we. The HMRC dont say 'we know your broke so we'll let you off paying your dues'.

It isn't bullshit that I have never punctured a tyre or damaged a wheel from a pothole, underwater or otherwise.

First time in 22 years of driving, so I do hope I haven't done too badly.

Thinking you can blindly drive along at the posted limit and not risk damage or injury?
There's your bullshit.

"Driving blindly along"? Where do you get off on making judgements about how I drive? The car dropped into a pothole that wasn't visible - as soon as they develop in-car sonar, I'll be all over it.

]The road where my pothole fun happened was closed the day after I reported it - took a bit of a wander down there yesterday to scope it out.

[img] [/img]
This is the view down the closed road - in the distance, you can see how the water is puddled either side, leaving a central strip which is where everyone drives trhough the winter. If you're eagle-eyed, you can see a cone that marks where the edge of the pothole is. It's roughly central to the right-hand carrigaeway, as you look at it, which puts it right in the way if you're driving down the middle of the road.

[img] [/img]

The drop into the hole is sheer. The water is lower than it has been for awhile, which is why you can see the edge.

[img] [/img]

Scientifically, I mesured it with a stick.

[img] [/img]

The wet bit is about three quarters of the length of my size nine, which makes that hole about eight inches deep.

[img] [/img]

When I moved the cone, I found that it covers a nice little platform that means that, if you were unwittingly teetering on the brink, your drop off the edge would be pretty big. That fits - it was a big-a$$ bang, even at 20 mph.

The reason I bring this up again is because Mrs Pondo has just taken the car to have the tracking sorted, and they have diagnosed knackered suspension arms and a bill of £255 - we'll ask around, of course, but it looks like this whole party could cost something in the region o four hundred quid. Not happy. 🙁

Well, it doesn't look 'new' does it?

have you checked it on fillthathole.org.uk or potholes.co.uk to see if its been reported before?

"Do any of you actually drive cars? Especially after dark? One would reasonably be able to drive a car at or below the posted speed limit without having tyres and wheels trashed, and possibly suspension, thus risking a serious accident due to a tyre blowing off a rim"
No.
You drive according to road conditions which to mean means walking pace in standing water.
There will be exceptions , eg a manhole cover missing, but 99% of the time a car or bike wheel will cope will almost anything at 3mph. Yesterday morning a mate hit a pothole on his bike in 2 or 3 " of water. Riding almost too slow to stay up. Went down . Result 1 broken femur. whose fault? His for not walking.
It is a pisser when you do a tyre, the councils do have a duty to do their best but hidden holes if not reported cannot be their fault, especially if not found by a inspection plan or in exceptional circumstances. I dare bet that any area affected by flooding would be exceptional circumstances.

Be persistent. Take pictures. Receipts for damage. Threaten small claims. Be persistent.

We pay VAT, tax on our wage, tax on our savings, tax on money we leave to family when we die, council tax, tax on fuel, tax on cars annually, tax on new cars, tax on bits we buy for cars.

If the Council leaders, Quangos or other body leaders say they cant afford stop paying themselves six figure salaries.

+1

If local governments are not maintaining the roads to a less than dangerous state what are they doing?

My wife reported a massive pothole to Derbyshire , no less than 10minutes later she got a call to verify its exact location, and the next day it was 'repaired' with loose tarmac. From this I surmise that they only 'fix' the reported ones...

Of course they only fix the ones they know about. Each council has hundreds of miles of road, all with constantly changing problems and conditions, especially after recent weather problems. They can only do so much with the money and resources they have.

It's not like the pothole reporting apps don't get enough publicity on both cycling and non-cycling media outlets.

Sometimes, despite someone doing the best they can you will be involved in an incident that may cause you some inconvenience, cost and possibly pain. It is called life. Those that can't cope with that concept need to take a step back some times and gain some perspective. How many potholes could be fixed with the money and manpower used up dealing with your claim for a rim damaged by an unreported pothole?