Damge to car whilst driving in Somerset

by nariman

22 Sep 2010

about 6 months ago as I was driving home from an evening out, I hit a pothole and as a result bent 2 alloy wheels and did some damage to my suspension. I went back to the scene and took some photos and the pothole that I had hit was about 130mm deep in the middle of very narrow road.

I phoned up the council to report the pothole and they told me they already knew about it. So I decided to write to them and ask for compensation. It took council 3months to reply to me and say the normal crap about they followed the procedures and ...

After another 2 months of dealing wiht their solicitors and not getting any where, I decided to start a small claims court against them .

The council decided to defend the case and take no responsibility for the damage. However they also made a out of court settlement offer to pay for the damage to the car but no costs/loss of earnings!

I think this is a victory! I am still thinking if I should acept their out of court settlement offer or negotiate with them before asking for a hearing. The offer is almost half of what I have asked for!

Shows that if you follow the procedures as described on this wonderful website, you do stand a chance of getting your money back.

Thanks again for the wonderful site.