Pothole Compensation Advice

[OliiGuy]

I guess not just a Macan question but could not see a more general place to put this...any advice / experience would be welcome.
Hit a pothole which has done £300 of damage to my vehicle. Logged a claim against Hampshire County Council who are refusing any compensation based on the fact that the damage occurred less than 48 hours after they were alerted to the pothole. (They are claiming defence under Section 58 of the highways act 1980).
Pretty frustrated to be honest. Does anyone have any advice/experience of anything similar and how to progress towards a better result please?
Thanks

 

[tscaptain]

Some good advice here
https://www.moneysupermar...FBB&mckv=shyiFRRdn|dc_pcrid_309586096077_mtype_b_kword__2764ri918980_slid__pgrid_55555309572_ptaid_dsa-393092633960&uuid=11111111-1111-1111-1111-111111111111&Device=c&engine=google&ptaid=dsa-393092633960&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIrdr31cvt4AIVr7vtCh2V3AUxEAAYAyAAEgK3h_D_BwE&adloc=9045342&pgrid=55555309572


However, as you will see from the article you may struggle overcoming the reason for refusal

 

[BrianJ]

I've just had a similar result from Staffordshire County Council. They've taken about 9 months process and turn down a similar claim, claiming that they had an effective road inspection regime which inspected the road 3 days previously and found "no actionable fault". Somehow "no actionable fault" grew to a 2ft x 2ft x 4in pothole on a little-used minor road in 3 days, even though it existed 2 years previously on Google Streetview! I reported it the next day, their contractor took several days to inspect it and then decided it was urgent, repairing it a week or so later. They don't seem to have an appeals process - they use a firm of solicitors to handle claims. I thought I had a good case, with photos etc. Based on this I am at a loss (excuse pun) to understand how councils' expenditure on claims for vehicle damage caused by potholes have apparently escalated so much. I would also be interested in other experiences.

 

[tscaptain]

We had a cracked wheel due to pothole hole damage a couple of years back. I found that the offending hole (which was full of water so didn't look like a hole!) had been reported and was showing on the council's "report a pothole" website. I filled in the form, sent them a photo of the cracked alloy and they paid up promptly for a new wheel. Devon County Council, btw.

 

[BrianJ]

You were lucky! Staffs have a "report a pothole" site but it's input only, no ability to display previous reports. And they are one of the only 2% of councils that don't interface to fixmystreet.com, so I couldn't use that either, which would have allowed me to see previous reports. All round a very unfriendly, unhelpful and unbelievably slow County Council. They even send out emails saying "don't email us, we're busy".

 

[tscaptain]

Click on the "continue" at the bottom of this page
https://www.devon.gov.uk/roadsandtransport/report-a-problem/map/map_src/poth/
to see the map....quite a lot of holes..... but then again I believe Devon has the largest minor road length of any English county. Major roads are maintained by Highways England.

 

[richardfleming]

I think a lot of councils adopt a 'put up or shut up' legal approach to this. If they think they can brush you off with their solicitor they will.
So I'd suggest you get a solicitors letter of your own over to them - cost under £100 - and see if that wakes them up.

 

[Peter_Bull]

Pretty frustrated to be honest. Does anyone have any advice/experience of anything similar and how to progress towards a better result please?

How about taking them to the Small Claims Court?

 

[BrianJ]

I looked at that Peter. Although the initial charges are small, the downside is that if you lose, you can end up paying the other side's costs, which being the council and its solicitors will no doubt be disproportionately large. In my case I had to replace two part-worn front tyres, because one of them gained a large sidewall bulge from the pothole. So in the end I wimped out, which will be what they wanted.