[jambutty]

Originally Posted by ***Mr D***

I was driving to work the other day, driving down Black Abby Street, I then felt the car drop and bang the front end as I have gone into a pot hole.

Now this is my problem, it has defenatly damaged my bumper, no cracks just dislodged it and I have gained a water/coolent leak.

I reported it to the council/highways on the day it happened and they are now in the processs of fixing it.

They have said they will send me a claim form. Now I feel they will not want to pay for anything.

Has anyone had a claim of the council for damage to a vehicle due to road defects? If so how did you get on?

Your problem will be to prove that they were negligent in not making the repairs. In a nutshell you have to prove that the council knew about the hole and did nothing about it in a reasonable amount of time. What’s a reasonable amount of time? How long is a piece of string?

They are unlikely to tell you that Mr Bloggs reported the hole three weeks ago. Even if you got half a dozen witnesses to say, “yes the hole has been there for three months” it still doesn’t prove that the council knew about it. And that is the crux of the issue – the council KNOWING that there was a dangerous hole in the road. Of course you could always argue that a competent Highways Dept of the council should be aware of the state of the roads under their jurisdiction but they will probably have an answer to that.

I wish you luck in your claim.

Sadly mallard your road tax does not cover urban roads. That is down to the local authority.