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Watch out for potholes, they could leave a hole in your pocket

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08/09/2003

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.

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