In need of some advice here chaps. Driving home via a country road I came over the brow of a hill and went into a pothole. There was no way to avoid this :( there was yellow markings around it when I went back up to take pictures the next morning. The alloy can be repaired but I'm wondering if I should claim it back from the local authority (council)? Should I also have the chassis/subframe/suspension checked for any bent metalwork?

Put in a claim, if it was marked as for a hazard/for repair then imo should have been signed...

if it buckled the alloy, get your track rods, wishbone and shock check over and if all okay, get trackimg checked as it may have put it out..

It depends.

 

The Council has a duty to inspect roads but the period of inspection depends on the class of road, busy roads daily, quiet roads less so.

The Council also has a requirement to fix potholes it identifies within a reasonable period of time or to protect roads user from falling into the hole by means of cones or other road works.

 

Before you can have a successful claim against the Council

 

1) It must actually be a pot hole, i.e. fit the formal description that the Council will have (length, width, breadth)

 

and either

 

2) The Council failed to carry out inspection with the required regularity and did not identify the defect

 

Or

 

3) The Council identified (or was informed of) the hole but failed to fix it within the requires period or failed to protect members of the public from it.

 

So

 

You need to take pictures of the hole with measurements or using something for scale (a cd works, standard size) for your claim.

 

You might also want to put in an FOI for the inspection standard for that road and the inspection records covering the date of your damage.

If there are marking around it sounds like it's been ID'd and the question is over how long it has been since it was ID'd and if they should have had cones around it.

^^^^^ That covers it.

 

http://potholes.co.uk

 

Is it already on this site or other similar sites.

Is is a Local Authority maintained road or one under AMEY or BEAR.

 

Other members have successfully claimed and been paid out on.  *Get Pictures.*

eg

http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/272686-motorway-blowout-2-tyres-wrecked-evergreens-fitted-oh-dear

Edited 2 August, 20169 yr by GoneOffSKi

Have  a word with the RAC / Autoharp . See attached report : http://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/industry/pothole-damage-more-doubles-over-past-decade-says-rac

Edited 2 August, 20169 yr by vrskeith

I have pictures but not anything in measurement way?

You maybe onto something with AMEY, not 100% though.

I've emailed them over now so hopefully get word back. How do I put pictures on here as I have a few that you can see?

Sign up free with photobucket, then upload pics there, and copy &paste the image link they provide into a post here:)

Well they didn't last long :(

Been repaired Dan, back to their best, getting them refurbed next month, not sure what colour though

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-36964236

Hit one under a bridge at motorway speed, no way of avoiding without causing a hazard tyo other road users.

 

Contacted Highways England straight away and got a form filled out and sent back.

 

Finally got a letter through on day 89 (they have 90 days to reply to the claim) saying that the road was maintained correctly and that it was unfortunate that I hit it between them noticing it and repairing it.

 

The proof was a hand written document which could have been filled out at anytime as the hand writing was all the same and looked like it had been batched completed.

 

I had to pay to get it repaired myself in the end....not exactly happy.

Mine to get fixed was only 30 quid, not too fussed about that if it's going to get dragged out. Had I needed suspension and ball joints and stuff done I may have went the full course.

^^

Have you or someone checked that properly and are you happy your tracking is OK?

Yeah my pal is a mechanic, got him to check the wheel but it was done by a tradesman anyway. As for the tracking, it's not anyworse than it was before