colsy 0 Posted March 31, 2008 Morning all, hit a sunken grate this morning, done some damage to my car...(see my thread in drivetrain...still need advice) has anyone ever gone up against the council, claiming due to damages caused by things like badly installed grates, patches of tarmac missing? Cheers, Col. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Toad 0 Posted March 31, 2008 You can try to claim from your council, the standard defence is that if they didn't know that the pothole was there, they couldn't fix it, therefore it's not their fault. If you're lucky it will have been reported before, or the road was inspected. Expect to wait up to 6 months for the money, even if you are succesful. Take plenty of pictures for evidence. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
colsy 0 Posted March 31, 2008 Thanks, will do. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bigtunes 0 Posted March 31, 2008 Of course you could always get a mate to report it before you put your claim in.... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
colsy 0 Posted March 31, 2008 nice thinking!! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Critical_Mass 10 Posted March 31, 2008 I claimed for an alloys once. Get some pics of the offending grate before you ring them, as they'll be out sharpish once its reported to resurface the road. They will blame their contractors and your claim will be passed onto them. Thats where the waiting starts. It was November when my claim went in, by August the year after i got a cheque. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
colsy 0 Posted March 31, 2008 Cheer, I'm gunna chase this, regardless of how much it costs me to fix the car, its the principal of the issue!!! i'm totaly fed up with the roads here in yorkshire!! like my little instance will make any differance??...unlikley! people wouldn't mind paying road tax if the roads were half decent..well i wouldn't. Im ranting now!! :bad-words: :nono: :brickwall: :shrug: Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Critical_Mass 10 Posted March 31, 2008 Cheer, I'm gunna chase this, regardless of how much it costs me to fix the car, its the principal of the issue!!! i'm totaly fed up with the roads here in yorkshire!! like my little instance will make any differance??...unlikley! people wouldn't mind paying road tax if the roads were half decent..well i wouldn't. Im ranting now!! :bad-words: :nono: :brickwall: :shrug: I know what you mean mate! You'll probably have to get the damaged fix and you'll be given the amount you're charged to fix. OR if you get a quote from a garage saying what needs fixing and how much. The stretch of road i damaged my wheel on was resurfaced with in a couple of weeks of my claim, its the smoothest road around my area now. If only they had resurfaced it earlier. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
colsy 0 Posted March 31, 2008 its good to hear they took action. i'm currently looking into road tax, why we pay it, and what we get for our money... (absolotley no information on why we pay & how money is used on the gov website)i feel i have paid for something which i have not recieved...i.e we pay partly to have roads that are worthy of vehicles driving on them, yet here I have paid for the privleage to use a road that will inevitably end up costing me money, time & un nescecarry hassle.....what i thought i was paying road tax to avoid!!! i will keep this thread updated as to my progress...if any! and i'm going to make a point of moaning about every little defect i find on the roads i use....just to be a pain! i hate this country more and more each day. FEKING MONDAYS!!! :censored: Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Toad 0 Posted March 31, 2008 To be perfectly honest to your last post, the reason the roads are so poor is that we simply do not get enough money to maintain them. The average road should have a lifetime of 21 years before it is surface dressed, whcih gives it a further 7 years lifetime, this should be done 3 times in total, before the road needs digging up and replacing. On average UK roads get surface dressed every 100 years... Trunk roads and the A road network are prioritised for defect repairs over the other classified and unclassified infrastructure. One of the fastest rising costs for Highways departments is claims for damage to vehicles, don't get me wrong, I think you should be entitled to some compensation for damage caused by someone else, but I've already seen a claim for over £100,000 for "damages" to someones car and the resulting hire charges etc. I can only imagine that this kind of thing will increase. Along with a deteriorating network, and customers expecting higher levels of service than ever, highways authorities are expected to make year on year savings. The maths just doesn't add up. I think reporting faults is a great idea, but try to find a webpage that allows you to do it, rather than wasting your time harrassing a call centre rodent. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CazzaVR 0 Posted March 31, 2008 Yep- take a look somewhere in the middle of my gallery thread. A shoddy cattle grid destroyed the front end of our vRS last year, causing around £3-4K worth of damage. It took flippin ages, but they paid up for the repairs + our excess. They didn't even try to get out of it. However, they didn't admit liability :? . Work that one out! Happy ending though :D Go and take some pics, put a straight piece of wood accross the top to show how much it's sunken etc with a tape measure. Go for it! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites