Damage Caused By Pothole - Legal Options?

[AzzurrA]

Hi All,

Has anyone had any luck with taking on the council, in terms of getting them to pay for repairs to their car, due to damage caused by poorly maintained roads, and won?

Reason i ask is i was driving home from dinner tonight, and there was a large pothole in the middle of the highway... hit the pothole, which sent the car slewing sideways a bit... i caught that, and noticed the steeringwheel was at 90 degrees to the left... i thought my alignment must be out... until the rear end of the car started walking all over the place... at this stage, i was starting to slow down and pull over, so i put on the brakes, and that sent the rear of the car swaying around something shocking... managed to pull it onto the shoulder, and found that the rear steering arm (i think?) has snapped off, and is laying on the ground... This would be as well as buckling my rims, throwing my alignment out, as well as possibly causing stress fractures to mounts, and destroying my 2 day old tyres....

Now, i need to know how to go about chasing the council to get them to pay to get this repaired... as i pay my taxes, i do not expect to have my car damaged by sub-standard quality roads, which is what my tax money should be going to maintaining...

Anyone?

(P.S. i know this was posted elsewhere, but i really need all the help i can get...)

[chaos]

i replied to your other one

[AzzurrA]

thanks mate, muchly appreciated

[R31Love]

A mate of mine was driving down southside of Brisbane and hit a pot hole damaged his rim and busted the tyre, council paid for rim repair and 2 new tyres.

Give it a go for sure, did you take plenty of pictures?

[AzzurrA]

A mate of mine was driving down southside of Brisbane and hit a pot hole damaged his rim and busted the tyre, council paid for rim repair and 2 new tyres.

Give it a go for sure, did you take plenty of pictures?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Haven't taken pictures as yet, as didn't have a camera with me.. car is in garage now, so i can get pics tomorrow or something, and i'm on my way back out soon, to take pics of the actual pothole, and where i stopped etc

[Mr-Toy33]

I've always wondered if this was possible.

I've for ever driving along poorly maintained roads here in Woolloongabba/Coorparoo/Stones corner area and i'm just waitin for my suspension (shocks and/or springs) to really screw up and then that would be a cause to hit council up for the repair cost due to them not maintaining the roads like we pay them to do.

[AzzurrA]

i went back and found the pothole last night (drove the stretch twice, and i could only find one in the area where it happened) and got some photos...

The photos don't really do it justice though... its about 1 1/2 foot long, by about 8 inches deep...

will post up pics later on tonight

Its 'interesting' trying to play chicken with semi-trailers doing 100+kph at night to get a photo of said pothole

[NismoGirl]

Yeah I was going to say to go back and get photos of the pot hole before they go out and fill it in.

As long as you've got photos of the pot hole, and photos of the damage, I'd be claiming for damages from them.

[BecBoo]

I have had damaged caused to my Skyline due to potholes and unmarked road works. I contacted the relevant council, they then gave me their Solicitors to contact. I just had to get 2 quotes and send it in with a letter stating when, where, how etc. I did take pictures, however they weren't needed in my case. They paid up but it took 6 months.

Hope this helps.

Bec

[Mr-Toy33]

Guess this is just like claiming it under insurance instead no insurance company is needed.

Takes 6 months to get the money to fix or reinburst for the damage caused by poor roads.

*looks at ipswitch motorway*

[R33SUM]

yes it is possible to claim for the damage caused...however if your going to go into this you have to go into it 100% meaning it will probably cost u alot of time and money which might mean losing which means a bigger waste than just fixing what ever damage was done to your car....best get legal oppinion first, i would be happy to help or refer you to someone that can...good luck

[chaos]

I spoke to my mate at work and he said you can sue the government for neglegence (sp) in the condition of the road.

He said best bet would be to go through department of Main roads.

but as stated above, your either all in, or not at all. Cause being the governement the probably will fight you hard.

[shanef]

^ and wasting more tax payers dollars in the mean time.

Definately look into mate seeing as though u've done a fair bit of damage.

Ipswich road u say, well i can garuantee u work is being started late next year on that road (i work for the engineering/design company that has the contract, but shhh lol)

[BecBoo]

Apart from the 6 month wait (which was due to investigations as over 40 cars had claimed) the experience I had with claiming damages through the coucil wasn't too bad. Half a day on a Saturday getting quotes for damages (stating that the damage was due to pot holes / roadworks) and five minutes to write a letter. At the end of each month I would call them up and get a progress report and they were really helpful.

Some people chose to fix there cars immediately and send the bill to the council, however this can be trickey if the council decides your claim is not legitimate. If you car in not able to be driven they do give you priorty. As my car was able to be driven I was not a high priority.

I did not have to get legal advice and there were no expenses on my behalf, just time and patience.

Bec

[Mr-Toy33]

Yeah.... I think they push those who cant drive their cars due to the damage taking their car off the road, through faster as people can then turn around and also sue the government and/or council for any lost of time they have to take off work.

All in all, the council and/or government are found to be in the wrong when it comes to something like this cause it's their responsibility to maintain the roads as thats what our tax money APPARENTLY goes to. Specially these speeding and defect fines we are constantly forking out.

[AzzurrA]

I called Brisbane city council first thing this morning, and they told me to call Main Roads, as the highway is not their concern... so i called Main roads, and they said to speak to the depot that services that area, so i called that depot, and they said to speak to this lady and gave me her number... Now, she worked for the contractors who actually fix the road, and she explained that they have a 24 hour period in which to fix potholes, and she said the one that got me was reported last night, and was fixed today (i checked on the way home from work today... its been patched up)... and as it was fixed within a 24 hour period, it is not their problem, and is Main Roads problem.... However, she got me to send her an email with the details of the incident etc, which she then fowarded on to the district director for main roads (or something like that). She said that it may take around a month for anything to start happening, as main roads are very slow with things like this...

Anyway, also called RACQ to get the car towed to the workshop, and they said that they would, but it would be classed as an 'insurance' tow, as hitting the pothole broke something, they therefore class that as a 'collision'... they wanted to charge me like $250 to tow the car 5km down the road... what a joke... they told me to call the insurance company and find out what i have to do, so i did (not telling them who i was etc, of course) and they said that they can 'try' to claim from Main roads, but usually they aren't successful, in which case i would have to pay the full excess and lose a rating... um, NO THANKS... especially for something that is not my fault..

so i got the car towed at my expense to the workshop, and am now waiting for a report saying what needs fixing (oh, and workshop is taking photos of all damage etc)

I think i'm just going to get it all fixed, keep all receipts etc, and then submit that to Main Roads with a letter of demand (if nothing is sorted out within a 'reasonable' timeframe)

And no, i'm not just going to sit back and put this in the 'too hard' basket if nothing happens.. hell, i'll represent myself in court if i have to...