I recently drove on a private road that was in poor condition and my front wheel got caught in a pothole. It has damaged my car and now I am facing a huge repair bill.
How do I make a claim to get this money back?
JK Ipswich, Suffolk.
The increasing number of potholes is causing more and more damage to vehicles, but if it occurs on a particular road, can you claim for the problems they cause?
Consumer rights attorney Dean Dunham responds: In most cases, when your vehicle is damaged after hitting a pothole, you will direct a compensation claim to the organization responsible for the public road in question.
This is usually the city council or highways authority. The law in this case is the Highway Law, which establishes the obligations and responsibilities when it comes to public roads.
However, when the pothole is on a private road, these authorities take no responsibility and the Highway Act does not apply.
Instead, responsibility for a private road falls to the person or entity that owns the road. The rules applicable to private roads are set out in the Occupiers Liability Act 1984 for England and Wales; the Occupiers Liability (Northern Ireland) Act 1957; and the Occupiers Liability (Scotland) Act 1960 in Scotland.
Under both laws, the basic legal principle is that the owner of the private road has a duty to keep it safe. And if a hazard is present (such as a pothole) and the owner knows or should know, there is a responsibility to make it safe (i.e. repair the pothole) or provide adequate warnings to road users.
Your first step here is to find out who owns the private road and write to them citing all relevant information. Include the date and time the damage was caused, exactly where on the road the pothole is located, the size of the pothole, and the cost to repair the damage caused. You must also cite the relevant law above.
Sometimes these claims are straightforward if the private road is owned by a supermarket or property developer and therefore leads to a public commercial area.
However, when the road is owned by an individual and leads onto or passes through their private property, it can be more complicated. Therefore, you should also consider whether it would be easier to make a claim on your car insurance, although this could affect your premium.
My bank’s fraud team blocked a payment when I tried to buy a sofa; when it was allowed, the sofa was exhausted; now I can only find it for £100 more.
Can I request compensation?
CC Epping, Essex.
Blocking transactions has become everyday practice for banks and is perfectly acceptable in most cases, writes Dean Dunham.
Dean Dunham responds: Banks are becoming more cautious about money transfers in a bid to combat the growing number of authorized push payment (APP) scams, where consumers are tricked into transferring money from their bank accounts to scammers.
Most banks are also signed up to a voluntary code (the Model Contingent Refund Code) in which they have agreed to take steps to increase customer awareness of scams, do more to prevent them, and refund customers on time. certain circumstances.
As a result, blocking transactions has become everyday practice for banks and is perfectly acceptable in most cases.
A bank must generally process payment requests within 24 hours, unless there are good reasons to delay longer. Interestingly, new legislation being introduced by the government will give UK banks the power to pause payments for up to 72 hours if they suspect a customer is being scammed.
This is a clear indicator that it is considered acceptable and reasonable for banks to delay payments while they investigate.
Therefore, in most cases it will be unlikely that you will be able to claim compensation from the bank for a blocked payment.
However, banks must act responsibly and if you can prove that a) your bank took more than 24 hours to process a payment without good reason and b) you suffered a loss as a result, it could give rise to a claim.
If you find yourself in this situation, the first step to take would be to file a claim with your bank and ask for compensation.
If they say no (and in most cases this will be the response to a complaint like this), your next step would be to lodge a complaint with the free Financial Ombudsman Service. But be prepared, your circumstances will have to be extreme to be successful.
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