f!#©®ing pot holes

[tommack]

Took the better half out for an Indian last night and thought I would take the back roads (wish I hadn't now ) when suddenly the front suspension sounded like it had come through the bonnet,,so I pulled over and switched the torch on and had a quick inspection of the front wheel and tyre and thought I was lucky ,pulled up outside restaurant and went in and had a lovely meal. We left the restaurant and got In the golf started her up and pulled away and immediately thought "that don't feel right" pulled over again and sure enough flat tyre, so out comes the Jack and spare wheel ( it's now 11pm) and think great another £100 on a tyre.it seems like it's going to cost a bit more tan that now on closer inspection this morning, the alloy is damaged and now I'm going to have a running battle with the council to get compensation here's the damage and the pot hole

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[Mahesh]

Good you taken pics and measurements,

Don't let the council get away with it, they are insured.

[Pippin]

Best of luck with the council, but I don't see how they could defend this.

[Carledo]

My local council will not entertain payouts on pothole damage unless they are at least 4" deep. I know, i've tried!

But that one looks pretty close, so you should be OK!

Steve

[cliftyhanger]

http://www.theaa.com/breakdown-cover/po ... claim.html
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/pothole-claims

First one is a bit simple covering the laws, second is longer and far more helpful with advice.
Importantly, be meticulous with your evidence, ie you depth picture is tricky to see the depth against the tape measure, the pic should be more inline (if that makes sense) and pictures to show the exact location.

Be prepared for a long haul, be consistent and be reasonable. Avoid getting stressed about it all, and you will need garage bills to be able to claim. Trouble here is you may be able to get a good used wheel/tyre for £50 off ebay as a fix, but then you can only claim £50. But if your claim ultimately fails, you have only spent £50. By a new wheel and tyre may be £300, but you may not get any of that back. So all a bit of a gamble...

[SprintMWU773V]

How could you not see this pothole?

[tommack]

How could you not see this pothole?

9-45 dark and chucking it down with rain and the hole was full of water on a single track road

[Pippin]

My local council will not entertain payouts on pothole damage unless they are at least 4" deep. I know, i've tried!

But that one looks pretty close, so you should be OK!

Steve

It looks like about 3" in your photo. I'd nip back and make sure you measure at the deepest point, before the council fill in the pothole and remove the evidence.

[SprintMWU773V]

I have successfully brought 2 claims against our local councils but it was very difficult. I was successful in one case because I could prove the defect had been there for some time by using Google Street View and I also won another claim by arguing that the inspection period of every 12 months was inadequate against the standards set out in the maintaining good highways guide which sets out things like how often a road should be inspected which depends on the sort of traffic that uses it.

[oily66]

Due to the amount around here I now purposefully hang a lot further back from the car in front.
I am surprised I have not been pulled over, but then again there are no traffic cops these days, for the amount of ducking and weaving going on. Fortunately I drive on pretty much the same roads and have an in depth knowledge of where they are or where they are starting to appear.

[Magenta Auto Sprint]

I was told by a council officer (head of corporate governance) to raise it with my car insurance company and let them fight it.

Malcolm

[trackerjack]

Been there worn the shirt.
Council claim they inspected road at such and such date and it was fine so no payout.
West Sussex CC employ a lawyer to fight these claims.
I hate people who say "did you not see it" for obvious reasons.
Last weekend wife was driving her MX5 and hit a big one as she had spotted the one in the middle of the road but hit the one on the side which she did not notice, lucky no obvious damage and she is a fully qualified driving instructor who really knows her stuff.
So these days you have to watch the speed, other road users, horses, dogs, cyclists and you cannot trust the road to be a road. Councils take enough money off us to cover maintenance.
Drive in Majorca, Corfu and other EU countries and they have lovely smooth roads.
Since we have been in the EU are roads have become terrible.
I know because in the 60's I was a racing cyclist and rode massive miles in training and remember proper roads.

[Carledo]

Been there worn the shirt.
Council claim they inspected road at such and such date and it was fine so no payout.
West Sussex CC employ a lawyer to fight these claims.
I hate people who say "did you not see it" for obvious reasons.
Last weekend wife was driving her MX5 and hit a big one as she had spotted the one in the middle of the road but hit the one on the side which she did not notice, lucky no obvious damage and she is a fully qualified driving instructor who really knows her stuff.
So these days you have to watch the speed, other road users, horses, dogs, cyclists and you cannot trust the road to be a road. Councils take enough money off us to cover maintenance.
Drive in Majorca, Corfu and other EU countries and they have lovely smooth roads.
Since we have been in the EU are roads have become terrible.
I know because in the 60's I was a racing cyclist and rode massive miles in training and remember proper roads.

Tell me about it! I too spent most of the 60s on a push bike.
I had never seen a broken coil spring till I moved to Shropshire in 1986. Nowadays I change a couple a week on average. It's probably the job I do more than any other.
One of my customers has a diesel Zafira which has had 4 o/s/f coil springs, 3 n/s/f coil springs and 1 each side on the rear, all in the space of 5 years and just over 12k miles. She can't claim off the council cos she doesn't really know which particular pothole is responsible, there are too many to choose from!

Steve

[James467]

Drive in Majorca, Corfu and other EU countries and they have lovely smooth roads.

Ever driven in Romania TJ!!

Seriously though, my family always goes on at me about how you have to avoid potholes over there, my response is always 'have you driven in the UK recently!!' The roads are bad but in comparison to the UK their main roads when resurfaced are actually really nice and seem to last despite being subjected to -25 deg snow covered winters and 40 deg plus summers especially on the plains. So I have little sympathy when councils blame the weather for their contractor's shoddy workmanship.

Hampshire seems OK, go across the border to Surrey and the roads are just terrible.

[Magenta Auto Sprint]

Surrey has Project Horizon which plans to resurafce every road in Surrey.
http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey- ... d-10398617