hit pothole and buckled rim, can i sue the council?

[Greg]

hey guys,

as the title says i hit this massive pothole on the edge of the road (another car was coming so i had to go right to the edge) and heard a massive bang. i jacked my car up when i got home and the rim is clearly buckled.

if i take a photo of the pothole, take a photo of my buckled rim and send it to the council, do you think they will pay for a new rim or repair costs of my existing rim??? or will they contest it and take me to court and it would end up being more trouble than its worth?

thanks

greg

[dan_the_man]

A roo jumped in front of my car once and I hit it, I am thinking of sueing Skippy

[Guest Robo's]

No, i tried it as i buckled 2 tyres, front and back and they didnt want to have a bar with it.

I guess if you through a Solicitors letter on there desk, it may be different.

[32_ENVY]

look the local councils will screw you around till your like...180 years old. hahaha, bunch of pricks, they will say, call this person, then that person and it will happen prolly, but only after a lot of mental anguish on your behalf. By all means try and good luck to you man, just warning ya that stupid shit WILL happen

Dave

[Guest RedLineGTR]

"On a serious" note. have some pot holes around my area, and i try and miss them but sometimes you just cant when the wheel "falls" into the hole i feel that it's damaging my suspension and if i find out if something farks up i'm sure to go to the counsil and make something off it. I just might write them a letter when i get a sec to see if they can fix it. Cheers Rob

[dan_the_man]

Sorry Greg I think the council would stuff u around for so long that you would get fed up and walk away from it. Talk to your local MP and see what they say

[predator]

lawyers letter will fix up that problem.. threaten them loss of income due to loss of vehicle for time its off the road, repair of rim, and anguish due to destroyed rim. Write intelligently enough and you will get it through. BTW: take photos of said scene, damage to said wheel, and make it more than obvious it was their ****ing fault basically..

Its happened plenty of times before with rich ppl suing the council for damage to their nice rich cars .esp brighton, glen iris, camberwell, toorak, et al area . Notice how the roads around those areas are much nicer than the outer suburbs? funny that

[Greg]

thanks for your help everyone, i'll take lots of pics tomorrow, write up a formal and intelligent letter and see what comes of it. I don't think it would be worth the lawyer's fees and the hassles to get a lawyers letter sent to the council. i keep you updated on how things go.

anyone know any places to get my rim repaired in eastern suburbs?

lol@dan_the_man...i know what u mean, these days people seem to be suing because they didn't like the way someone looked at them. that case in the US (where else?) where some guys sued McDonalds because they sell fattening food was a prime example of how ridiculous things have become with litigation.

[DJ_L3ThAL]

dont think so dude, you dnt have a leg to stand on, its the ****ing government ffs, basically when u sign your registration/licence it says stuff in the conditions like 'you accept all risks that personal injury/death/property damage blah blah to you and your car may ocur if you drive on the roads yada yada... they arent that stupid, otherwise noone would pay to get their car fixed... if someone hits you instead of sueing them u could sue the concil for giving such an idiot driver a licence... cmon man there's limits, as harsh as it is i suggest u dont waste your time and just get da rim repaired/new rims and be on your way nice n happy

btw ive just spent 2 months waiting for money form the guy who hit me... my cars has panel damage since and its ugly... i just spoke to a lawyer as things havent gotten very far and he basically told me there's nothing i can do for such a small amount, its just not worth it, and he said if the other party went to a lawyer the lawyer would have told them dont bother paying coz there's not much chan cei will take him to court etc...

moral of the story, lifes a bitch, ignore the bad times

[Al]

That's f**ked Nath, sorry to hear!

Greg, i have heard stories of people successfully getting money for damage to their cars, but you may have to prove that the council was neglegent and failed to address a road hazard, VERY hard to do.

[rs73]

organise a class action.

[R31Nismoid]

you can sue concil.

you pay rates/rego blah blah to have the roads in a USEABLE condition.

If you split a $2000 wheel... or a $5 one, you can sue them for it.

get a nice letter draw up. Photos etc as others have said.

And they should pay.

If not, got them to court. The court will rule in your favour as potholes should NOT be there.

[DJ_L3ThAL]

yewr but going to court with help will cost at lkeast $1300 (as i was instructed in my incident).. so its deinfitely not worth it, because even if u sue as well for your own legal fees there are still plenty of fees that the court doesnt consider the need of the other partty to pay so in the end if the claim your making is not at least $2000 then dont bother goingt to court.. this is what the lawyer told me for future reference

[R31Nismoid]

represent yourself.

see adice form your lawyer yeah... and legal aid.

All you have to do then is present your case, which can be done on your own.

[DJ_L3ThAL]

yer he workjed it out even if i represent myself, ill actually only get $200 max form the guy in my case coz there are still fees, its not worth it unloess its $2000 he said... stuff it im not wasting my time anymore, the ****er can be a ****er and we'll see what happens

[dan_the_man]

yay it could be another rainmaker

[Guest INASNT]

U don't sue the council...u sue ***in Vic Roads!!!

There the ones who build our roads so its only right that u sue there asses!!!!

The same shit happened to my girlfriends mum...in her shitty little festiva on punt rd. she made an entry at the police st then forwarded it to vic roads who re-inbursed her for the new tyre and costs to get a wheel allignment.

Man if it could happen to her then they would prob do the came thing for u!!

[gjb977]

DJ_L3ThAL

A bloke slightly hit my old 300ZX. $220 worth damage. Told me to get fuc$ed - he wasn't paying. I took him to small claims court. Cost $90.

Judge got right up him. He paid my $220 + my $90. Excellent. I kept the cash and sold the 300 and the rest is history... :-)

[Sledge]

Ok let me clarify the sueing issue for you.

Local council look after maintenance on roads even though vic roads are the governing body for road location and type.

Its completely in your rights to seak compensation for property damage due to poor quality or poorly maintained surfaces, but the problem lies in developing blame.

To lodge a sucessful claim or to win in a court case you need to prove that the council was negligent in either they're road construction or maintenance.

The problem here is that its near impossible to prove that it was they're fault that the pot hole developed. However if the pot-hole has been previously repaired and has yet again gone sour then you've got a start point. This proves that teh council have acknowledged that a problem exists and have put in place means to fix it which have failed. It is upon that failure that you have a basis for making a claim.

alternatively if you can prove that the council have been made aware of potential problem and have not responded in an acording manner then again you have a basis for negligence.

Finally if you're really out to screw them, you need to gather a group of people that can individually lodge a complaint to the council regarding the pot-hole and its potential danger to you vehciles safe driving. Then you need to allocate a suitable period of time to allow them to review all the complaints and then source a series of road repair agencies to see an approximate lead time for road repair.

With these in hand, you just wait out that time and then lodge your claim stating that the incident occured after that period and thus the council made no attempt to fix the problem that had already been brought to they're attention. However proving how you knew about the complaints might be a bit difficult.

GOOD LUCK!

[West]

Yes you can actually sue the council for neglience, cos' they owe you a duty of care.

Base on the CIVIL LAW TORT.

Good lucks.