Pothole wrecked your wheel: how to claim money from the council

The wheel drops into a pothole, the tyre splits, the rim bends, and the garage quotes a few hundred pounds. The instinct is reasonable: the council owns the road, so the council pays. Legally that is almost right. But between "their road" and "they paid" sits one section of the Highways Act that most drivers only meet in the rejection letter.

Who is responsible for a pothole?

For most roads, the local council. Section 41(1) of the Highways Act 1980 places a direct duty on the highway authority to maintain a highway maintainable at the public expense. A separate subsection, 41(1A), requires the authority to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that safe passage along a highway is not endangered by snow or ice.

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Motorways are the exception. If the pothole is on a motorway or an A road that National Highways manages in England, report it there: info@nationalhighways.co.uk, 0300 123 5000, a 24-hour service. For every other road in England and Wales, GOV.UK runs a page called Report a pothole: enter the postcode of the road where you found it and you are sent to the right council's site. In Scotland you select a local council; in Northern Ireland you mark the pothole on a map.

Why does the council refuse if the road is theirs?

Because the authority has a defence written specifically for this, section 58 of the same Act. The heading calls it a special defence: in an action over damage resulting from failure to maintain a highway, it is a defence to prove that the authority had taken such care as in all the circumstances was reasonably required to secure that the stretch in question was not dangerous for traffic.

The Act lists what the court must have regard to: the character of the highway and the traffic reasonably to be expected on it; the standard of maintenance appropriate for a highway of that character; the state of repair a reasonable person would have expected to find; whether the authority knew, or could reasonably have been expected to know, that the condition was likely to cause danger; and what warning notices were displayed where repair before the event was not reasonable. One point cuts the other way: proving that maintenance was handed to a competent contractor does not help unless the authority also proves it gave proper instructions and the contractor carried them out. Section 58(3) binds the Crown.

The practical lesson is blunt. These claims are not won with a photograph of the hole. They are won, or lost, on the inspection schedule.

What should you collect at the scene?

Photograph the pothole with an object for scale, take a wider frame that fixes the location against a house number or a lamp post, and note the date and time. Keep the garage invoice and the parts receipt. Then report the pothole formally through the council's form: that report is what fixes the date from which the authority definitely knows about the defect. Ask the council for its inspection records for that stretch and for any earlier complaints about it — that is the material that breaks a section 58 defence if it turns out the hole had been reported and left.

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How long do you have to claim?

For damage to property, six years. Section 2 of the Limitation Act 1980 says an action founded on tort shall not be brought after the expiration of six years from the date on which the cause of action accrued.

For injury to a person the window is much shorter: three years. Section 11(4) runs that period from the date the cause of action accrued, or the date of knowledge of the injured person if that is later. If the injured person dies before the period expires, section 11(5) gives three years from the date of death or the date of the personal representative's knowledge, whichever is later.

What does it cost to take it to court?

If the council refuses, the route is a county court money claim — the process GOV.UK calls Make a court claim for money, long known as the small claims court. The fee is set by the amount claimed plus interest: up to £300, £35; £300.01 to £500, £50; £500.01 to £1,000, £70; £1,000.01 to £1,500, £80; £1,500.01 to £3,000, £115; £3,000.01 to £5,000, £205; £5,000.01 to £10,000, £455. A tyre and a rim usually land in the first rows of that table.

On a low income or on certain benefits the fee can be waived through Help with Fees. Apply online before you make the claim and you get a reference number to quote. By post, fill in form EX160 together with claim form N1 and send both at once to the Civil National Business Centre, St Katharine's House, 21-27 St Katharine's Street, Northampton NN1 2LH.

What if a person was hurt, not a car?

GOV.UK keeps a separate page for that: Claim compensation for injuries caused by roads or pavements. The logic is the same — an injury caused by a hazard on a road or pavement is a claim against the local council, found by postcode. The page covers England and Wales only.