Pothole damage - Surrey County Council

Pothole damage - Surrey County Council

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Howard-

Original Poster:

4,958 posts

209 months

Monday 16th December 2013
quotequote all
Evening PH locals,

Has anyone managed to successfully claim for damage to their car (tyre, wheel, whatever) as a result of a pothole on a road maintained by Surrey County Council?


Thanks smile

Planet Claire

3,349 posts

216 months

Monday 16th December 2013
quotequote all
I've never claimed anything myself but I do know of successful vehicle claims against another local authority.
I used to process the insurance claims in a local authority I used to work for many years ago, although not the highways department, so I suspect that it will just be received from an admin type person and it will be sent straight through to the insurers to process and follow through and investigate.

If you haven't found it already, here's the link to SurreyCC claim form:
http://www.surreycc.gov.uk/your-council/complaints...


LanceRS

2,182 posts

144 months

Monday 16th December 2013
quotequote all
I claimed from Hillingdon many years ago, I had loads of photos, which just as well as the hole was filled 2 days after I made the claim and before the assessor came round!
They paid up readily enough. Apparently they were insured for the damage to vehicles and that was cheaper than fixing the roads.

RemyMartin

6,759 posts

212 months

Thursday 19th December 2013
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I did notice the other day following a bus through Bagshot, an advert on the back saying the council want help identifying the potholes, so you may have a chance if it had been reported and not yet filled in.

Best of luck with it though.

AlexRS2782

8,173 posts

220 months

Thursday 19th December 2013
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Not sure if SCC are any better than Hampshire, but 3 weeks back I reported the absolute crater that had formed (again for the 2nd year running) on the inside lane of the A331 Blackwater Valley halfway between the Aldershot & F'Boro junctions going in the direction of the M3.

Drove past yesterday and it's still there, but it looks ever deeper now with big lumps of tarmac where lorries have probably caught it and opened it up even more banghead

Got to the stage now where if a car hits it, they'd definitely end up with shagged suspension, wheel, tyre, etc, well that's if they don't crash after going through it banghead

ALawson

7,855 posts

258 months

Thursday 26th December 2013
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Can you claim for replacing both tyres on an axle? Obviously you don't only want to replace a single tyre.

TinyCappo

2,106 posts

160 months

Monday 17th February 2014
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Destroyed 2 tyres last week on my RX8 which was not great on a pot hole just outside haslemere.

PITA for me but not as bad as a colleague who hit the same hole 10 hours later and tore a big hole in the sump and wrecked two suspension legs on his 87 E28 M5 frown

Council will be getting the bill for that!

Harris_I

3,237 posts

266 months

Thursday 14th March
quotequote all
Sorry for the thread resurrection but am going through this process now.

Shredded both nearside tyres (brand new!) on an enormous pothole outside the Cala Homes construction project on Egley Road (A320) just south of Woking. It's the bit where the road has been narrowed by the addition of an island in the middle of the road.

Very lengthy online claim: lots of photos, invoices and various other docs. To be honest, I thought it was an open and shut case.

After 3 weeks, they've rejected my claim for compensation with the main defence being "Surrey County Council is able to show that it has undertaken regular routine safety inspections of Egley Road prior to this incident at the location you have described. Safety inspections are carried out on a monthly basis."

This appears to be a standard response to cover themselves under Section 58 of the Highways Act 1980. But the reality is they ought to be inspecting the road much more frequently given the construction project nearby (which has resulted in a huge degradation of the roads in that area in a short space of time).

Anyone been through an appeals process with SCC before? Am I wasting time and energy for the sake of £350 (I didn't bother putting in a comp claim for refurbing the wheels as the scrape was on the inside)? Any tips (even if it's "forget it mate, you'll never win, just take it on the chin and move on"?


essayer

9,623 posts

201 months

Thursday 14th March
quotequote all
Probably. You could ask for the road inspection records, and if they don’t/won’t provide them a FOI request should work. If they didn’t inspect it in the correct timescale, you’d have a case.

Don’t forget they’d deduct a percentage for betterment, so you may not be as worse off as you think. Not that it’s much consolation, I appreciate.

Harris_I

3,237 posts

266 months

Thursday 14th March
quotequote all
Many thanks. Good idea to ask for the records, and perhaps even make a case that the road should be inspected more frequently given the heavy construction traffic nearby.

The tyres were only a few days old, lovely fresh Conti Sportcontact 7s. If I had hit the pothole on the old tyres, I wouldn't bother claiming!

jeremyc

24,549 posts

291 months

Thursday 14th March
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It might be worth approaching Cala Homes and see if they are prepared to cover the cost.

Harris_I

3,237 posts

266 months

Friday 15th March
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Can't hurt to try.