Did you know that if your car is damaged because you hit a pothole, it
could affect your no claims bonus and in the worst instances, you might
not even be able to claim on your insurance?
According to a study by the Institute of Civil Engineers released last
week, three quarters of local roads show evidence of deterioration this
year. Now direct car insurer, Admiral is warning to motorists to be aware
of the dangers. It handles hundreds of claims every year from motorists
who have damaged their cars from hitting potholes. The problem arises
when the insurers approach the local councils responsible to try to claim
their outlay back.
Admiral Claims manager, Dave Walker, explains, "Once we have paid
out for repairs to a car, we try to pursue the person who was at fault
for the accident to recover our money. When we receive this we can reinstate
our customer's no claims bonus. In cases where a motorist hits a pothole
due to poor road maintenance, we try to recover our money from the council.
Unfortunately, too often, it proves impossible to do this and sometimes
we cannot reinstate the no claims bonus."
According to the Road Traffic Act, the council is only liable for the
accident if they were aware of the pothole. And many councils will claim
they never knew about the pothole. The onus then lands on the insurance
company to prove the council did know, and this can be extremely difficult.
Dave Walker, continued, "We always try to pursue a council for our
outlay in cases like this. We will also appoint a solicitor for our customers,
to help them to recover any losses they have suffered. We will contact
the police to see if they have any reports of other accidents. Unfortunately
the law seems to favour the councils. The only advice we can offer is
people to be good citizens and report any road damage they see and for
motorists to drive carefully and keep an eye out for any potholes."
Motorists with Third Party, Fire and Theft cover only won't be able to
make a claim at all. Their policies do not cover them for damage to their
own car, so they have to claim from the third party. In cases where a
local council denies liability they would have to pay for the repairs
themselves.
Issue date: 08-09-03
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