UKC

Does anyone know if it is true or just an appealing urban myth that you can charge (or at least pursue via small claims court or something) a local authority for damage done to your car because of a pothole? Just burst a tire driving up the hill from Hathersage towards Sheffield. I managed to change it for the spare (I have now a rich and varied history of things not going well when trying to change wheels on my current car, too long and complex to go into now). Two other cars pulled into the same layby as we were during the time it took to change the wheel, both times because they thought they had punctured too. A guy in a camper reckoned his suspension had been damaged even though his tire survived. I went and looked at the pothole and counted 15 hubcaps strewn along the verges either side of it! From the numerous bangs we heard when I was changing the wheel, a significant percentage of traffic up that hill was hitting the same pothole!

Good advice here https://www.theaa.com/breakdown-cover/advice/pothole-damage-how-to-claim

You can certainly make a claim, although in my experience its very hard to get a positive outcome (I broke a wheel and got nothing out of the council)

A friend lost his entire front left assembly (wheel, suspension struts torn clean off on another pothole) - he also wasn't successful

This should answer all of your questions.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/pothole-claims

I know a couple of people who have made successful claims to their local council for tyre damage caused by potholes.

on each occasion, the pot hole had already been reported.

the council apparently do have a statutory defence against such claims if they are unaware of the existence of the pothole.  I supposer this encourages us to be robust and report them as son as we see them?

I know someone who literally broke their neck along with several other injuries because of a few potholes that had been reported numerous times. A fair few days in hospital too and a few surgeries over a few years to fix things. 

Despite that stretch of road having been reported as poor for a considerable amount of time and a few witnesses the council still fought the claim all the way to court. They lost

A friend successfully claimed for a new tyre and alloy wheel damaged by a hole on the M5, although this may be different as it's a highways agency road not a local road. I tried to claim for a tyre damaged as a result of a drain cover lifting in heavy rain but wasn't successful as the council was unaware of the problem.

My father successfully claimed against Hampshire County Council for a destroyed wheel and tyre. In Herefordshire, the roads are in such an appalling state and so many new and very deep holes are opening up every day it is hard to keep up with them. They seemto have totally abandoned rural areas.

We broke a spring when we hit a pothole in the city where I now live, reported that to the Council, and eventually received  compensation for the repair from them. The crux seemed to be that the pothole in question had already been reported.

Of course, this all just goes exponential: whilst individuals are receiving compensation for individual problems, and the Council is spending time and money sorting all that out, the real problem - the lack of a proper overall maintenance programme - appears to go unmanaged, and underfunded.

Back when I lived in Aberdeen (1980s/90s) the local council would pay claims for damaged bike wheels although I've no memory of anyone claiming for a car wheel.

My dad who is an ex local govt. person was lecturing me today over facebook (where I had asked the same as here but with added photos of the offending hole and its numerous hubcap fans on the verge) that LAs have had funding from central govt. specifically for fixing road surfaces.

There is extensive patching already at that point on the road, it looks like they've tried to fix it numerous times, so I guess it has been reported. I've logged my report with Derbyshire CC on their webpage that allows you to do that. I guess I need to write a letter now to their chief exec now with a bill and see what happens.

So the crux of the issue if it happens to you is to phone anonymously and report it and check if it’s already been reported. Tape the conversation. Then, put in your claim. 

I made a claim against Liverpool Council for a new tyre (I could only afford Ditchfinders at the time) and they paid out, but it took them over the 90 days to do so.

I reported mine instantly online, and when I put the evidence together I had maps (you could see the pothole from google earth), drawings and statements from my passenger. It's definitely worth applying to the LA.

In my experience there is a specific claim form, this is a different council though. Might be worth ringing up and asking what the procedure is. I have followed the advice on that money saving expert link someone posted about. Make sure you take photos with a tape measure of the offending pothole, and of the damaged tyre. I sent my claim form in weeks ago and it hasn't even been acknowledged so I'm not holding my breath!

Easier said than done!

on my way to work one day, nearly fell into a manhole where one of the sections had fallen into the hole.

Phoned my Mrs and asked he to report it, we didn't know who we were supposed to report to.

Local council, wasn't interested and said we had to report to County Council, she rang them and they said they couldn't do anything directly, but if it's a safety issue has to be reported to the police, but took some details, including, "Do you know the post code of the hole!!!" .

Phone the police and they took the details, but were incredulous about the hassle she'd had.

Makes it hard to do your civic duty, surely who ever you ring should be able to pass the details on.

Yes it all hinges on whether or not the pothole has been reported and whether, therefore, the council has an obligation to fix it. Last week on Monday and Tuesday there were half a dozen cars parked in laybys and on the verge up the Elton/Grane road that runs from Blackburn over to Haslingden as the drivers changed their wheels. I hit the same pothole but not hard enough to puncture a tyre, but I rang Lancashire CC who seemed to take it quite seriously and the next day I saw that a bodged repair had been done. Take a look at the fault reporting website and you'll be shocked at the sea of yellow and red triangles representing reports. With that in mind, if you need to claim, check out the nearest pothole to yours and file a claim under that one as you'll probably be correct. 

Correct me if I'm wrong here. I am no defender of the council, but surely this is a counter-intuitive way to proceed if you genuinely want the council to fix the potholes? All the money spent processing such complaints and paying out on some of them strikes me as a very poor use of council time and money which would be much better spent actually fixing the potholes.

Obviously its not ideal for you that it damaged your tyre but surely the best thing to do (presuming its not going to bankrupt you) is to report it and let this one go for the good of society? Or am i being hopelessly idealistic? After all, the council concerned has probably been subject to various funding cuts from central government which have contributed towards the lack of pothole repair.

Can't help, but as a community service could you say which road specifically (past Stanage or past Millstone?) so I can watch out for it next time I'm driving that way?

Thanks, and good luck.

Hathersage Booth Chris, just as the wood are on your left as you drive up toward the Surprise View corner. Maybe about 80 mtrs past the turning that takes you up past Higgar to Stanage Popular. Pictures here https://twitter.com/TobyinHelsinki/status/957389412404486146 and interestingly Derbyshire CC tweeted back to me even including a web link on how to make a claim!

Totally see your point and I did report it straight away - Derbyshire CC have an online site with clickable maps and all that for doing it. My dad who is pretty switched on to local government spending issues claims that LAs got a specific ring fenced grant recently to deal with road resurfacing issues, so supposedly they can't use the "cuts, innit?" defence currently. Interestingly when I moved here 3 and a bit years ago, the roads on the other side of that hill (Sheffield CC) were appalling and you notice how they improved when you crossed the county line into Derbyshire. But Sheffield has a major infrastructure project at the moment and lots of the roads have been resurfaced over the last year and Derbyshire is now looking a bit ropey in comparison.

Still plenty of rubbish roads in Sheffield. Again it is really easy to report online and generally they do patch pretty quickly.

You burst a tyre on that? I can only assume that it's deeper than it looks and is full of water.
You had plenty of room on the inside to miss it anyway

I always report through: https://www.fillthathole.org.uk 

It's a cycling website that links the hole to the responsible parties, so you don't have to look them up, and also it isn't owned by the responsible party, so there is less dodginess when it comes to looking at statistics afterwards...

We were in a line of cars so I didn't see it until quite late. I agree it doesn't look that bad, but the bangs cars were making going over it were quite worrying sounding. As a I said, a chap in VW camper pulled in behind us and he said he thought his suspension or something in the steering had been damaged, so maybe a burst tyre isn't the worst.

It's obviously a problem area if you look at the number of patches already made to the road there though.

On the brightside - if you need a hubcap, there's probably one in the right size there for you and that would be recycling!

This is the trouble these days, you need to leave a huge gap to the car in front so that you're not zigagging around avoiding huge craters, and when you do, someone invariably gets into your gap. That and I spend most of my time staring at the road looking out for potholes.

You obviously haven't got enough rich and influential people in Sheffield.  I drive in and out of Cheshire twice a day on country lanes, any holes get filled almost as soon as they appear!

Hubcaps - I was going to ask if they're any VW ones, I need four to replace my stolen ones