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#Post#: 117814--------------------------------------------------
Another pothole related predicament! Hillingdon
DIR By: Starworshipper
Date: May 5, 2026, 9:13 am
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Hi guys and gals. Big shout out to the folks in the PPC area of
this website; the offending company has backed off, for now! But
alas I present with another problem:
My wife managed to hit a sizeable pothole—in the London Borough
of Hillingdon—a while back. This resulted in the ‘debeading’ of
a tyre, and the sump suffering a fatal crack. To compound this
the actual breakdown occurred (some minutes after impact) on the
A40, during rush hour (always rush hour there, right?). And as
such the police had to be called who then towed the car to their
pound, and we then had to arrange towing home etc.
These costs escalated the total bill to an eye watering amount,
so we are keen to give this claim for compensation our best
shot. I’ve already submitted photographic evidence of the
damage, along with garage receipts for everything, and even the
police report number. Location and images of the defect were all
very detailed and included.
I used ChatGPT to check my original submission, to make it more
presentable etc., and the council’s representatives have
responded denying responsibility. ChatGPT gave us a response to
send back, asking for:
* A copy of the highway inspection records for this location for
the 12 months prior to the incident
* The inspector’s notes from the inspection carried out on
18/12/2025 (as per their email)
* Details of the council’s intervention criteria for carriageway
defects
* Any records of complaints, reports or works orders relating to
this defect/location prior to my incident
* The inspection report and photographs from the safety
inspection carried out on 13/03/2026 (as per their email)
So, does anyone think this is all going well, and does anyone
have experience of using ChatGPT for these matters, or perhaps
you guys can advise better than AI (no offence intended—pothole
claims just might not be rocket science).
Any advice will be greatly appreciated, of course!
#Post#: 117819--------------------------------------------------
Re: Another pothole related predicament! Hillingdon
DIR By: DWMB2
Date: May 5, 2026, 11:07 am
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Potholes are not my area of expertise (although swerving to
dodge them probably is, given how many of them there are near
me), but if you're seeking advice on something you plan to send,
which is being sent as a reply to something you have received,
it's probably necessary to show us the email to which you are
intending to reply. Precise dates might also be useful (you
mention the incident was "a while back").
One element the council might be keen to push back on are the
inflated costs caused by the necessitation of a police call-out
and towing etc. - they may try to argue that the driver ought to
have stopped and inspected the car for damage as soon as they
safely could after hitting the pothole rather than continuing to
drive until the car stopped working.
As an aside, the MSE website has a guide you may have come
across already: Pothole claims
HTML https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/pothole-claims/
#Post#: 117822--------------------------------------------------
Re: Another pothole related predicament! Hillingdon
DIR By: Starworshipper
Date: May 5, 2026, 11:26 am
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Thank you for your response DWMB2, and your logical points. I
will take a look at MSE, as I have yet to. But please see below
for the rejection email from the ‘Claims Adjuster’:
We can confirm our enquiries have been carried out and are
complete.
We regret that we are unable to offer any compensation in this
instance. Unfortunately we are only able to offer compensation
where we consider that our clients would be held legally liable
in respect of an incident.
Upon investigating this matter, we do not consider our client
would be held liable on this occasion.
Our reasons for this are as follows:
Our clients have a statutory duty to maintain the highway.
Courts accept however that no matter how diligent an authority
is it cannot or prevent or respond immediately to all defects.
As a consequence, the simple existence of a defect on the
highway does not generally render the highway automatically
liable.
In this instance our client has in operation a system of
inspection. The point where you say this incident occurred was
also examined prior to the date of your accident on 18/12/2025.
This was within their 4 times a year inspection frequency. There
were no defects meeting with our client’s intervention level for
repairs observed at the location on that occasion, therefore it
would not appear to be a problem at that point.
The defect was noted during the post accident safety inspection
which was carried out on 13/03/2026. A works order was raised
and repairs were completed by 24/03/2026.
In these circumstances we therefore do not consider that our
client would be held to have been in breach of their statutory
duties for any failure to act. As such, we regret we are unable
to make any compensation payment on this occasion.
Finally we advise you of your rights to seek independent legal
advice at any point during the claims process.
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