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Unsuccessful pot hole damage claim

by patsimbenbill

28 Feb 2011

My husband went down a pothole and damaged two of his alloy wheels and suffered a burst front tyre. The road that he travelled down was very narrow (just enough room for two way traffic to pass) and riddled with deep potholes.

Also to add insult to injury, we found out when trying to purchase a replacement alloy that the car had a special design of wheel when originally purchased so it was impossible to replace this design of wheel. A brand new set of different design of wheel would have set us back £700. So we scoured E-bay and eventually found some good condition 2nd hand wheels, so we had to buy a set of 4 new wheels just to replace two alloy wheels, plus a new tyre.

We put in a claim to Basildon council for the damage caused to the wheels and they have denied responsibiliy!!

I have telephoned them today and they said that they are able to deny responsibility because THEY WERE NOT AWARE THAT THE POTHOLE WAS THERE!! Can you believe that??
Even though the day after this happened they sprayed a yellow circle around the pothole!

Ironicially the claims handler did not have the file to hand so she is calling me back tomorrow so that we can have a further discussion on this? This just astounds me that they can deny liability when the whole road is littered with potholes.

Any advice on what to say to this idiot tomorrow, I am very very angry and want the compensation that we are owed for all this hassle that we have had to endure for what is their total incompetency to maintain the road surfaces.

Thank you

Pat Clements.

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Comments (2)

patsimbenbill posted : 28/02/11 at 10.03pm

OK I take back the 'idiots' and 'incompetent' comments and apologise for these comments. However, there are a couple of things that I just cannot understand.rnIf someone had caused criminal damage to a person's vehicle they could be prosecuted, and yet these huge potholes are just everywhere and people are being refused compensation. How can this be legal? The pothole that damaged our car was identified, as the next daywhen my husband took a photo of it the hole was identified with a coloured spray paint, so it had been identified as requiring repair. It is not always possible to avoid potholes without putting yourself and on coming traffic in danger of a collision. If councils are not going to accept liability for damage to vehicles why are they letting people put in claims for damage. We are not seeking inflated compensation amounts for the damage just compensation for the cost to us due to this road not being maintained to a safe and driveable standard.rn

Potholes.co.uk Expert posted : 28/02/11 at 5.07pm

You have left your name on this thread and then proceded to call individuals 'idiots' and the local authority 'incompetent'.rnrnGiven that what they have said is correct and that your understanding is wrong, i suggest you drop your claim like a hot potato, unless you want these comments to come back and bite you.

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