Hello,

Not posted on the forum for the while but I am in need of some help!

I was driving along a length of road where resurfacing was being undertaken and therefore the manholes were proud of the road surface. I had slowed down due to the dodgy road surface, but as I went over the manhole it hit my drive shaft which in turn caused damage to my suspension and steering. As a result my car has been written off. I believe this happened as not only was there the raised manhole, but a pothole on the edge of the road which I think my passenger side wheel went though.

The insurance company will pay (amount yet to be negotiated), but I would really like some advice on trying to get the council to accept responsibility. Mainly because I lose 2 years no claims, have to pay my excess, and my insurance will go up considerably due to a claim for a written off car.

Could anyone give me some advise on this, or point me in the direction of some useful websites/information?

I'm also not sure if I should claim through the local council or the highways agency?

My insurers have already indicated that it will be very difficult to get the council to accept responsibility. Not sure if I should just allow them to pursue this or do it myself?

if the council new about the fault and failed to fix it they are liable, as it wasnt coned off i reckon you have a case, does your insurance come with legal cover?

No legal cover unfortunately. I want to maximise my chances of successfully challenging the council. There is a lot of information online in regards to damage caused by potholes, but this is slightly different in that its a write off and was as a result of road works as well.

If there was a sign that warned you of roadworks or failed road surface then it will be deemed that you were warned so your claim will be rejected.

There was a sign further up the road and they may well say that. However, I would argue that if the manhole was so high it could knock off my drive shaft then the road isnt safe and suitable to drive on. Its not like I damaged a wheel because I drove over it too fast.

Also just looking for advice on the claim process and useful sources of information, dont really want to get in to details about everything and whose at fault etc.

Best of luck with your claim, can't help with the claim process never been through it myself.

to claim you call council highways dept and they send you a claim form, have you asked your insurers to do this for you? even with out legal cover i would have thought they would want to minimise their losses

Yeah they are sending me a form in the post. Someone from the insurers legal department is meant to be giving me a call, however they have already said its very unlikely. Also Im not sure how much effort they would put in as I think I will only get about £2500 from them for the panda

are you keeping the car to self repair?

garlicbread22 said:

My insurers have already indicated that it will be very difficult to get the council to accept responsibility. Not sure if I should just allow them to pursue this or do it myself?

Click to expand...

If there is a high chance of recovery by your insurance company from the council they'd already be on the case at getting full costs recovered. If they've advised its unlikely then I wouldn't hold up hope. They also won't be doing any of this for you if they've already advised its unlikely.

scout said:

If there was a sign that warned you of roadworks or failed road surface then it will be deemed that you were warned so your claim will be rejected.

Click to expand...

:yeahthat:

garlicbread22 said:

There was a sign further up the road and they may well say that. However, I would argue that if the manhole was so high it could knock off my drive shaft then the road isnt safe and suitable to drive on. Its not like I damaged a wheel because I drove over it too fast.

Click to expand...

Their counter argument would be why did no other car get damaged? Was your car lowered and riding lower than it should have been etc etc?

The fact that there was a sign, and road works on going to improve the road would indicate that they were aware of the issue(s) and being responsible in repairing it. As Scout has said, its for you as a road user to judge the road conditions and what speed you can safely drive at without having an accident or causing damage to your car.

As unfortunate as it sounds I suspect you'll have to swallow this as one of life's lessons, but do let us know how you get on.

garlicbread22 said:

I was driving along a length of road where resurfacing was being undertaken and therefore the manholes were proud of the road surface.

Click to expand...

You were aware of the raised manhole, as the driver, you should also be aware of the ground clearance of the car.

garlicbread22 said:

as I went over the manhole it hit my drive shaft which in turn caused damage to my suspension and steering.

Click to expand...

I suspect you mean; the driveshaft (on the car that you were driving) hit the manhole.
.

Davren said:

You were aware of the raised manhole, as the driver, you should also be aware of the ground clearance of the car.



I suspect you mean; the driveshaft (on the car that you were driving) hit the manhole.
.

Click to expand...

There is no useful information in this post Davren. As I have already said, I dont want to spend ages explaining it, showing pictures etc and you are making judgement on very little information. I have just asked for advise on the claims process and how I can maximize my chances as I understand it will be difficult. Posts like yours are not helpful.

The useful information is that you were aware of the hazard, but continued to drive into it. You should therefore, claim for any damage on your insurance policy, rather than expect other council tax payers in the borough to pay for your lack of driving skills.
.

Davren said:

The useful information is that you were aware of the hazard, but continued to drive into it. You should therefore, claim for any damage on your insurance policy, rather than expect other council tax payers in the borough to pay for your lack of driving skills.
.

Click to expand...

Again your making the judgement based on little information. I passed my test 8 years ago now and to date have had no claims or convictions so I dont think my lack of 'skills' played any part here.

I remember why I stopped coming on this forum now. I just came on here to try and get some help and useful information. There are a few people who have loads of good knowledge and want to help people but a lot of people who just come on here just to be rude and antagonistic. I would have hoped for better from a moderator. See you one of those people who loves playing the 'im a tax payer' card. Other people will be paying for it through their insurance premiums anyway so not really sure what the difference is. And at the end of the day if I am considered to be at fault then I wouldnt get any compensation anyway so you don't need to worry. So whats the point of you coming on here saying its my fault and im not good at driving? I think its a sad state of affairs when its a moderator whose putting people off using the forum.

after they have skimmed the top surface off the road they build a little asphalt ramp around the man holes to prevent damage, if any are left "as is" then one could be forgiven for thinking its safe to drive over them imo

To be honest I'd be looking at trying to get the council to accept responsibility, or at the very least offer compensation for it.

Unfortunately I can't help any. Keep at it and see how you do. At the end of the day, you've nothing to lose by challenging them. I hope you get it sorted, because I know I'd be gutted about it.

Not sure if it's something you'd consider, but if you've got some time you could always pop into a Citizens Advice Bureau and see if they can be any help. Again, not sure how easy that is, or whether they'd be any use, but just an idea!

Well its been over 18 months since the incident but this has finally been resolved so thought i'd provide an update to close out the thread.

It turned out I did have some legal cover on my insurance but this was useless on 2 counts. Firstly, the cover was only for personnel losses which meant they would try and claim the cost of my excess and any other costs (such as car hire if I had it) but my no claims would still have been effected. Secondly, basically they just sent a letter to the councils insurers asking for money and when they replied querying a few things they just gave up! I guess there is very little motivation for them to pursue cases.

So I had resided to the fact that I would just have to live with it as I didnt want to employ my own lawyers, but out of the blue about 8 months ago I was contacted by Elephant. They said they didnt consider me to be at fault for the incident and therefore they were going to pass the case on to their own lawyers and if I would be willing to attend court if necessary. This was good as if they were successful I would get my no claims back and also the excess I had paid. Anyway, I found out this week that the council had settled which I was really happy about. Also as I had my no claims discount back Elephant refunded me £150 on my latest insurance premium!

Ive been with Elephant a few years now and I must say im reasonably impressed with them. There customer services is good and if you ring up when your insurance is up for renewal and beat them down on price I have found them to be very competitive on price.