Hi,

just a couple of days ago i hit a pothole, cracked the barrel of my wheel and because of it the tyre deflated. Its a relatively small crack but will need either welding or a new barrel. I was wondering if anyone had been successful in claiming back some of the costs of damage from their local council?

I'm willing to spend the time sending letters to the council about it and I've got pictures of the wheel, can also get pictures of the pothole that caused it. Is anyone able to point me in the direction of some sort of claim guide that worked for them? I've heard its a pain and in the meantime ill buy a new barrel but if i can get them to agree to pay for the damage that would be awesome.

cheers in advance for any help with this.

Dave

A mate of mine claimed for damages a few years ago, it took 6 months of haggling but he did in the end get the cost of a new wheel & tyre.

There are size & depth of pothole rulings to be met before they will even look into a claim, so make sure you get as many photos with a tape measure in them to prove the size depth etc and things like street lighting, as if was in a fully lit road they might try to say you should of seen it and taken avoiding actions, they will look for any possible excuse to not payout :(

This week I have noticed with the amount of rain we have had, the potholes have got worse everywhere!

As regards to when they ask about avoidance of the pothole, say that a motorbike was overtaking so you couldn't!

Let us know how you get on as I am sure there will be plenty more of these claims before summer is out!

Hit a pothole in the sluts 6n years ago and blew the tyre. Rang the council to complain and to commence compensation claims and they told us that in order for compo to be paid the pothole has to be reported 1st. If the slut was driving we'd have crashed for sure as was turning into a busy carpark at the time. Never did get anything back (part of motoring was another excuse we were given) and surprise surprise the pothole had gone very shortly after. Best of luck getting your money back.

Years ago I hit a pothole in the breadvan that was so bad it cracked my windscreen and cut out the engine. After 20 minutes of poking around at the side of the road I found out that it was the fuel pump relay had been knocked so hard it had stopped working! Oddly though there was no tyre or wheel damage.

I called the council when I got home and they said that I needed photographs of the pot hole to claim for the damage. I drove out in the morning when it was day light again and the weasels had filled it in overnight!

I took photographs of it after being filled in and said they could check with their road repair guys that it was repaired only hours after my initial phone call. They turned round and said that without proof of its depth and size they couldn't process a claim.

Sneaky sneaky expletives.

I was under the impression if it hadn't been marked by paint you could potentially make a claim but from some reading everything seems to say that it has to of been reported first. You can request to see the reports on road condition made by the maintainence people though. The whole thing sounds like a stitch up really. I had the same thing with my windscreen cracking but to be fair it was chipped already.

Speaking of road damage though considering they legalised the badger cull maybe i could sue for the badger that vandalised the chassis leg on my car a few years back?