Site History Reports

13th September 2011

Hi folks, I have finally received a reply (7 months after issuing the claim!) from Epping forest council stating that they will not be settling my claim for damage to my vehicle caused by a large pothole as there is no grounds for a claim. It must be proved that the highway was in a dangerous condition and the dangerous condition was caused by a failure to maintain the highway.

They say that routine inspections are every 3 months with the last inspection taking place on 18 October and my claim is dated 4th January. They also say that they were not notified of the pothole by anyone prior to me reporting it on 4th January.

What is interesting is the site history report that shows there was an inspection on 10th January that confirms 'several massive, deep potholes which will cause damage to vehicles - these potholes are unavoidable if on coming traffic on road and dangerous when surface water is on road' in the exact location I hit the pothole I have tried to claim for damage.

The report also shows other unlucky people have also had the same problem as me....

10/01 FOI request re inspections and repairs
25/01 reports of potholes asking why they haven't been repaired
26/01 accident claim
01/02 accident claim

The council say there is nothing they can do about it as nobody notified them of the pothole between the last inspection on 18/10/10 and my claim on 04/01/11

Any ideas what I need to do now please as this does seem remarkably unfair?

Thanks very much in advance

Devon

Replies (1)

Potholes.co.uk Expert     posted : 14/09/11 at 10:38 am

Unfair it may be, but that's the law I'm afraid. The people claiming for incidents on 26 Jan and 1 Feb probably have a good chance of sucess as the records indicate that 20+ days after first identifying them as dangerous, the potholes had not been repaired. That is a very poor show.

However, unless you can prove that they knew about the potholes before 4 Jan, I don't see how you can win your claim as there is nothing to suggest that their negligence led to your incident.