CAN I CLAIM FOR POTHOLE DAMAGE EVEN IF THE POTHOLE HAS GONE?

Q

I live in a small village with only one road running through it. During the past year the potholes on the road have been getting worse; few have been dealt with. In September my Nissan Qashqai developed a clonk; the local dealer discovered that the offside front suspension was damaged, and the repair cost was £840. The mechanic suggested, without prompting, that potholes may be to blame. I’ve tried to get compensation, but the council says I must tell it the date and time of damage and the location of the pothole with a photograph. But the pothole I suspect has caused the worst damage has been filled in. What should I do?

– AF

A

Many councils struggling to keep up with their road maintenance obligations. But claiming against a local authority for pothole damage requires tenacity and patience.

As you’ve found, the council will require you to be able to produce evidence that the damage that has occurred was due to a pothole, and particularly, a pothole that is its responsibility, as opposed to that of another council or Highways England. That’s why they ask for a photograph and the location of the pothole in question.

The trouble is, I suspect the damage in your case was caused by a succession of pothole impacts. But if you believe there was a large pothole that did cause significant damage to your car, but has since been filled in, I would still take a photograph of the now filled-in pothole, and send it back to the council, specifying the date and time you first noticed the clonking in your car, and iPotholes cause a lot of damage to cars: but proving what or who was responsible can be tough explaining that you believe the damage was caused by repeated impacts with this pothole. Hopefully, this will be long enough ago that it was in fact before the pothole was filled.

I suspect the council will still reject your claim. However, if you’re willing to commit some time to this, you can take the matter further.

First, you’ll have to obtain, using a Freedom of Information (FOI) request, the council’s road maintenance policy, which will detail the frequency with which it must inspect the road, and how soon it must repair potholes once they have been reported.

You’ll also need to get hold of the inspection record for the road in question for 2023, as well as the record of pothole reports on that road for the year, and the record of repairs that were carried out in that time.

This will enable you to see whether the council was in fact following its own road maintenance policy, inspecting the road with the requisite frequency and repairing reported potholes in a timely manner. If it hasn’t been doing this, you may be able to re-submit your claim with the above evidence backing it up, pointing out that the council has been negligent in its maintenance of the road.

In either case, the council may respond offering full or partial payment, or they may still reject your claim. If they do reject it, you have the right to take your case to the small claims court. But seek legal advice before you do this, as the burden of evidence will be relatively high, and if you lose, you’ll have to pay fees that could cause your costs to spiral.