With the Beast from the East behind us, the snow and ice has melted, but it left behind another problem for motorists, potholes. Road issues are a common problem after any extreme cold weather, resulting in cracks and potholes on the surface.
You’d be hard pressed to find someone who hadn’t been driving along and without warning they heard the dreaded clunk as they’ve driven over a pothole, and in some cases, it can damage their vehicle and bills can soon mount up when having it repaired.
We’ve done the research, and in some cases, you could be able to claim the cost of the damage to your vehicle back from the authority responsible for keeping the road in a safe standard. We’ve put together some key points below on when to claim.
This should be enough for you to submit a claim, and if the local authority finds they are in the wrong, you should get at least some of the repair costs back. If not, you can appeal, and even go further, requesting FIO data to find out whether the authority was checking the road, and repairing as often as it should have been. If not, you could be able to make a claim based on negligence with that as evidence.
Another thing to consider is whether the local authority knew about the pothole, if the pothole is new, the authority has done the right checks, and no one has reported it as a hazard, it’s unlikely that your claim will be successful.
If your insurance policy is fully comprehensive, then it’s very likely your covered, but consider that claiming could affect your renewal premiums and no claims bonus, and you’ll be required to pay any excess.
The key thing to remember is that you don’t have to claim on your insurance right away, so it’s worth going through the process of trying to claim the costs back from the local authority first.
Regardless over whether you claim on your insurance, always let your insurer know about the incident as soon as possible as it’s important that they are aware of any damage to the vehicle.
At Call Wiser we believe it’s better to talk, that’s why we have highly trained, friendly staff based in the UK that specialise in finding you the best possible deal on your insurance. Give our team a call today on 0800 298 2190 and together we could save you hundreds of pounds on your insurance each year.