Hit a pothole? Claim compensation for car damage

Here we go again. A bit of ice and frost and our roads are opening up to compete for top spot in the national biggest pothole competition. Has a pothole ever damaged your car? Did you claim compensation?

I reckon my road has a good chance of gaining top spot – I counted three in less than 100 metres on my way to work this morning.

I even saw a woman crouching next to one and measuring it with a tape measure while she took a photo. I couldn’t see how wide it was measuring but it was definitely BIG.

As a regular car driver and cyclist it shocks me how many potholes there are. Hitting one or having to swerve to avoid another is no laughing matter.

Not alone in my pothole frustrations

Our latest survey certainly suggests I’m not alone in my frustration with potholes. We surveyed 2,000 drivers in February and found that nearly 70% have hit a pothole in the last two years, and a third of these sustained vehicle damage.

However, only two thirds of drivers who reported damage made a claim for compensation. Four in 10 of these drivers didn’t claim compensation because they didn’t know they could. The same number said they couldn’t face the hassle of making a claim.

More than half of all claims were awarded compensation, so it’s definitely worthwhile pursuing a claim. I’m sure the woman I saw measuring a pothole was preparing to make a compensation claim judging by her impressive diligence, but clearly not all drivers take the same track.

Have you spotted more potholes on roads in your local area? Have you ever hit one? If so, did you try to claim compensation?

alfa says:

5 March 2015

We have claimed several times for warped alloys, chipped and cracked windscreens all because of the bad state of our roads. Pictures of the pothole or loose chippings and copies of the repair bills have all been settled eventually. The cost of claims must far outweigh the cost of repairing the pothole so it seems rather negligent of councils not to fix them.

I would like to see a much higher standard of repair when it comes to potholes. How often do you see a man with a bucket and his boot heel? Within weeks the gaping hole is back again.

If the hole was lined with bitumen glue, the tarmac filler properly compacted and the edges sealed, the repair would last a long time saving councils a lot of money and making our roads much safer.

John Ward says:

I agree with you on the poor quality of repair work. Highway authorities have put this work out to contractors who manage the whole system from gathering defect reports to rectification and final inspection. A sample might be inspected by the council’s engineer after they have been done but without having seen the original hole and seen how the repair was carried out it’s not a very reliable quality check. Road surfaces perform best where there is an unbroken substructure. The very existence of a pothole and the break-out of the asphalt or bitumen + top dressing surface coating indicates some rupturing of the underlying roadstone’s integrity and this needs to be restored if a repair is to hold. Some excavation and under-cutting is essential before backfilling and compaction followed by application of the new top coat with sealed edges as Alfa says.

A country main road near us that carries a fair amount of commercial and agricultural traffic suffered from multiple potholes over a short section two or three years ago. It was patched up fairly quickly because it was hazardous but although that was supposed to be the final reinstatement it soon failed again and a temporary speed limit was imposed because the repair had actually made matters worse. Ultimately, a much larger part of the road had to be dug out and reconstructed to a substantial depth, one-way working with traffic signals had be implemented, and a whole new top-dressing had to be applied over the entire stretch. So far as I know the county council made the original contractor pay for the reconstruction but the disruption and lost time is never recovered and any minor damage to vehicles from the defective road surface and loose chippings is probably not pursued. Moreover repair work rectification must consume labour and material resources that could be more usefully deployed elsewhere and impact on the overall maintenance programme. I am surprised that the insurance companies that meet claims for pothole damage don’t take a more interventionist line and insist on higher standards of highway repair and preventive maintenance in order to mitigate losses. They probably just keep raising their premiums that are recharged to residents through the council tax.

judith hickson-ridley says:

I have tried for over two, yes two years to claim for pothole damage to my car and every time they have either lost the claim or lost the photos or my claim didn’t exist even though I have a reference number from them. I even asked the councillor for my ward to help me and he over the space of a year has kept telling me that its not in his ward so he cant help. I have asked this councillor on numerous occasions if he is in actual fact my councillor but all he keeps saying you will have to go to a solicitor. so where do the ordinary people on the street go?

You certainly don’t need to go to a solicitor. It sounds as though your local councillor is not interested or has some reason why he won’t take it up officially. There’s no point in wasting any more time going along the political path. I think you should write to the head of the council’s finance department – they probably handle all insurance claims – and mark it as an official complaint to be dealt with in accordance with the council’s declared public complaints procedure[you can probably look this up on their website]. The next step after that if you do not get a satisfactory response is to take it up with the Local Government Ombudsman. The Ombudsman can dictate a remedy; even if an insurance claim fails, the maladministration of your claim requires redress.

wilma says:

I tried to make a claim a couple of years ago, my wheel buckled. I put my life in danger measuring the pot hole for the requested photographs only to be told I was obviously lying. I was so upset I didn’t pursue it – which was probably their aim.

malcolm r says:

Let’s hope now the recession is on its way out more money will be made available by councils to properly repair roads. It has to come from somewhere. You could always look at what your council spends its money on – from senior staff salaries to consultants and bottled water for example – to see whether they have got their priorities right.

wavechange says:

I would like to see prompt action to fill in potholes and a better standard of workmanship to ensure that the repairs are not short lived.

I believe car manufacturers have made problems for motorists by switching from steel to alloy wheels, which are more fragile, and fitting very low profile tyres on some models. And if you do damage a wheel, there may be no spare in the boot these days.

DibDob says:

6 March 2015

My mum’s wheel was damaged in a pothole and the council form in order to claim was ridiculous. It wanted so many intrusive details, including your National Insurance number, that were clearly unnecessary and designed to put people off. They also wanted a photo, but it was dark and raining so there wasn’t one. Mum just filled out the bits she was prepared to disclose and sent in a stiffly-worded letter – we were amazed when she got the refund. We were also helped by the fact that the hole had already been reported on one of those websites which collate the details and forward them on, so we knew they had been notified and couldn’t pretend otherwise. So my advice is – persist!

Vixi says:

19 July 2015

The Localism Act 2011 was hyped as an assurance that local authorities would be more transparent, honest and enable local communities to be more involved in the authorities’ policies and actions. The dishonesty in that claim is clearly illustrated by the general response to taxpayers attempting to claim for damages to vehicles due to potholes.
Between May 2013 and May 2014 I had 3 suspension springs broken which my mechanic said arose from hitting a number of potholes, meaning I could not identify a specific location. No point in trying to claim for those, or the 2 others replaced in my last service. But when a tyre burst and a wheel buckled, photos taken of the responsible pothole and a garage report, I tried to get my money back. As listed above, a ridiculously and deliberately complicated form requesting much irrelevant info, an insistence that they carried out regular “inspections” (by driving, not walking along roads) and that the pothole I had hit was not there at the time of their last “inspection” which meant that it didn’t exist when I hit it, in spit of the photos, (i.e. I was lying) all explained at the cost of an external solicitor, an additional cost for the Council in their determination not to pay local taxpayers. They wear you down, these Councils… and ward Councillors have either little ability or interest in fighting on behalf of their local plebs… or am I just biased?

CHRISGREENING says:

24 September 2015

I HIT A POTHOLE THAT WAS OVER 5 FEET LONG 18 INCHES WIDE AND 8 INCHES DEEP 2 TYRES DESTROYED AND FRONT AND REAR TRACKING PUT OUT. I CLAIMED AGAINST SURREY COUNTY COUNCIL FOR THE COST OF REPAIRS, OVER £5OO AND WAS TOLD THAT NO ONE HAD REPORTED IT. I FOUND OUT THAT 18 OTHER CARS HAD HIT THE SAME POTHOLE AND SUFFERED DAMAGE HOW MANY GOT PAID DAMAGES I DO NOT KNOW. SURREY COUNTY COUNCIL HAVE A 1 MILLION POUND EXCESS ON THEIR PL POLICY RUN BY A MAN AND HIS DOG COMPANY IN REDHILL. NEEDLESS TO SAY MY COMMENTS ON SCC ARE UNPRINTABLE.

ZelahBysouth says:

8 October 2015

Salisbury and Wiltshire has a bad reputation for damaged roads. The are potholes that have been there for over 3 years. One road I use doesn’t have a surface on in places and many potholes. I damaged my suspension on the rough speed ramps we have in out village and in Salisbury. You cannot go over them without a jerk. Not good for my bad back either. I was not aware that I could claim from the coucil for this. I tried twice to claim damages one when I water meter cover was damaged and I caught my toes damaging the nail and once when I fell due to uneven slabs in the town centre breaking ribs. On both occasions the teflon shouldered council said tough or words to that effect! I believe the Council has just sacked the contactors.

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