Pothole Damage

dub_dan

Was out for a drive last night in my new (to me) car. I was going through celbridge on the road that aldi is on (not sure of the name of it?) when I hit a pothole that could only be described as a crater!

On the other side of this crater there was a very sharp edge that cut straight into my wheel, i was going 15-20mph max, i dread to think what might have happened if I was going any faster. :mad:

I know they're re-surfacing the roads up that way but to leave them in such a state in the mean time is ridiculous.

So now I'm faced with a bill for a new tyre and have to get the shock looked at tomorrow to make sure everythings ok. Is there anyway I can put in a claim against the council for this?

Any advice would be appreciated!
Cheers
Dan

prospect

dub_dan wrote:

Was out for a drive last night in my new (to me) car. I was going through celbridge on the road that aldi is on (not sure of the name of it?) when I hit a pothole that could only be described as a crater!

On the other side of this crater there was a very sharp edge that cut straight into my wheel, i was going 15-20mph max, i dread to think what might have happened if I was going any faster. :mad:

I know they're re-surfacing the roads up that way but to leave them in such a state in the mean time is ridiculous.

So now I'm faced with a bill for a new tyre and have to get the shock looked at tomorrow to make sure everythings ok. Is there anyway I can put in a claim against the council for this?

Any advice would be appreciated!
Cheers
Dan

I am afraid not.
I have had this happen to me several times, (twice on one journey ), and the council accept no responsability. However, if you report it, they must fix it. So if you see a bad pothole, ring/e-mail them and they will fix. Prevention is better than cure.

mik_da_man

I have heard that if it is a bad pot hole which was fixed previously but not correctly as it appeared again then you may have a case

Worth checking out

Moanin

I know that in Co Meath you are entitled to compensation once you have a photo of the pothole and the damage it did to your car

ismynametoolong

You most certainly can claim !
Be prepared for it to take quite some time but if you are dogged enough #
and dont accept there no liability / responsibility letter and pursue it then they will eventually pay up .
You need a photo of the pot hole possibly with a ruler to show size
An estimate of repairs or invoice ,and also state that you reported the matter to the guards. all accompained by a good letter .;)

prospect

ismynametoolong wrote:

You most certainly can claim !
Be prepared for it to take quite some time but if you are dogged enough #
and dont accept there no liability / responsibility letter and pursue it then they will eventually pay up .
You need a photo of the pot hole possibly with a ruler to show size
An estimate of repairs or invoice ,and also state that you reported the matter to the guards. all accompained by a good letter .;)

I know of a guy who went all the way to the high court with a pothole claim. He lost an awful lot of money in the process, and was not sucessful in his claim.

maidhc

ismynametoolong wrote:

You most certainly can claim !
Be prepared for it to take quite some time but if you are dogged enough #
and dont accept there no liability / responsibility letter and pursue it then they will eventually pay up .

The broad principle is that local authorities are liable for misfeasance, but not nonfeasance. In otherwords if they destroy the road in the process of filling a pothole you may have a claim, however if they just sit on their hands then it is tough luck. IIRC the Civil Liability Act 196x purported to change this, but was never brought into operation for fear of an avalanche of cases.

I know from experience that trying to pursue a LA for anything is like fighting with a brick wall. They don't care about your problem. If you threaten to sue them, they don't care. If you bring them to the high court, they don't care, they are not paying for the lawyers, and they are up there every other day anyway.

Writing a stiff letter won't hurt, but don't hold out much hope.

unkel

Was in the same situation a few years ago. If it is a repaired pothole gone wrong again after the repair, you can claim. I didn't bother going through with it over a couple of hundred euro

dingding

Worth trying, Same thing happned to me and it was because of the state of the road left after a contractor was doing work with the watermains, got a cheque from the contractor after complaining to the council. The pothole filled with water and just looked like a puddle. 2 tyres damaged.

Get a photo and was there any work in progress in the area.

The Doktor

If the potole has been reported to the council, and they have not yet fixed it, then you can claim. I know someone who did, but for the life of me I cant remember how he found out it had been reported already.

mloc123

I was wondering how long it would take for a topic on this to come up. I live on that road, in Beatty Grove, and the road has been in **** for the last week.

I've started driving very slowly along there now and crossing onto the other side if no cars are coming. I would rather stop and wait for the on comming cars to go than drive over some of them. The worst being where they have dug up the road and left squares, some of which must be 20-30cm high around the manhole covers.

My advice is take a picture of the pothole that did the damage along with one of your wheel and send them a quote to have it repaired/replaced.

dingding

I agree with mloc123, that is what I done. Looks like your road is going to be surfaced with asphalt. Probably a contractor that could be blamed rather than a random pothole.

mloc123

It is a contractor doing it and as usual its a joke of a job. They started scraping up the old layers about a week ago now and finshed on Thursday or Friday, they haven't done a thing since.

unkel

The Doktor wrote:

If the potole has been reported to the council, and they have not yet fixed it, then you can claim

Not true. See my previous post

maidhc

unkel wrote:

Was in the same situation a few years ago. If it is a repaired pothole gone wrong again after the repair, you can claim. I didn't bother going through with it over a couple of hundred euro

Fixing a pothole isn't like replacing a clutch or something. Many parts of the road will be prone to potholes (e.g. a hairpin) you won't have a hope in this sort of situation. But the general idea of a negligently repaired pothole would be correct.

Likewise if it is abundantly clear the road is under repair and you persist in driving at a normal speed your chances will be greatly diminished. They don't put "roadworks ahead" signs up for nothing.

It would be nice now if people stopped adding legal advice they heard in the pub to this thread. :rolleyes:

unkel

maidhc wrote:

Fixing a pothole isn't like replacing a clutch or something. Many parts of the road will be prone to potholes (e.g. a hairpin) you won't have a hope in this sort of situation. But the general idea of a negligently repaired pothole would be correct.

Likewise if it is abundantly clear the road is under repair and you persist in driving at a normal speed your chances will be greatly diminished. They don't put "roadworks ahead" signs up for nothing.

It would be nice now if people stopped adding legal advice they heard in the pub to this thread. :rolleyes:

Not quite sure what your point is, maidhc?

I'm pretty sure that my original post in this thread was correct about when one can claim off the council (I was not referring to private / third parties involved in road construction)

maidhc

unkel wrote:

Not quite sure what your point is, maidhc?

I'm pretty sure that my original post in this thread was correct about when one can claim off the council (I was not referring to private / third parties involved in road construction)

I wasn't referring to you at all about incorrectness, but other posters. Apologies if you read it that way.

unkel

maidhc wrote:

I wasn't referring to you at all about incorrectness, but other posters. Apologies if you read it that way.

Ah grand so

franksm

This month's Auto Express has an article on this very topic:

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/howtobuy/howtobuy/202431/make_a_claim.html

Says to consider taking the council to small-claims-court after sending them letters. That's for the UK though, not sure how that would go down here. Still, might be worth the €15 SCC cost to find out

http://www.oasis.gov.ie/justice/small_claims_court/small_claims_court.html

Probably can't cut & paste the AE article to here, so here's an abridged version

If you’ve decided to seek compensation from your local authority for damage to your car, here’s a checklist of key points you need to remember when gathering evidence, tackling the council and, if necessary, going to court.

Gathering evidence
● Take pictures and careful measurements of the holes or obstruction in the road, in case the problem has been repaired by the time your case is dealt with. Also, get shots of the damage to your car.
● Make a note of the time, date, lighting situation and weather conditions when the incident took place.
● Make sure you get a witness – if you don’t have a passenger to call on, a passer-by will do – as it may pay to have a second opinion.
● If necessary, call out a breakdown firm, who can later confirm the damage to your vehicle.

Tackling the council
● Call the council to get a claim form.
● Send back this form, plus your photographs and estimates of repair costs, by registered post.
● The council is duty-bound to reply to you within 30 days.
● If you haven’t heard back, write again stating you’re about to take the matter to court. The council then has three months to inform you whether it intends to settle the claim.

Going to court
● If the claim is for less than £5,000 (note: UK !) excluding personal injury, take it to the small claims division of the County Court. You will be given a hearing date, but do not need to engage a solicitor.
● Keep a record of expenses, as you are entitled to include these in your claim. The courts are keen on protecting public funds, however, so remember to keep your request as reasonable as possible.
● Attend the court and present your evidence to the district judge.
● Visit the Department of Constitutional Affairs’ website, which you can find at www.dca.gov.uk, for more details - note UK again

Seth Brundle

The laws that the LAs have to abide by are quite different between here and the UK.
I recall reading in AutoExpress a few years back that the UK LAs spend between 1/3 (IIRC) of their roads budget on compensation and that this percentage was rising. The fact that there is less money in the kitty for actually fixing roads was resulting in yet more damage leading to compensation...

maidhc

franksm wrote:

This month's Auto Express has an article on this very topic:

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/howtobuy/howtobuy/202431/make_a_claim.html

Says to consider taking the council to small-claims-court after sending them letters. That's for the UK though, not sure how that would go down here. Still, might be worth the €15 SCC cost to find out

Interesting.

Normally the SCC is reserved for business to consumer transactions, but it may well be applicible to claims against a local authority. but the District Court (Small Claims Procedures) Rules, provide for another kind of claimant:

(2) in relation to a tort, by the claimant (not being a body corporate) against the respondent in respect of minor damage caused to property belonging to the claimant (but excluding personal injuries.),

So I don't think there is anything to stop a person bringing a case in the SCC. Probably won't win, but at least you can't loose either.