Can I claim from the council if a pothole damages my car?

Yes. Under Section 41 of the Highways Act 1980, the highway authority (usually your local council, or National Highways on motorways and A-roads) has a duty to maintain the road. If they fail to do so and a pothole damages your car, you can submit a claim for the repair cost. Councils have a statutory defence (Section 58) if they can show they were inspecting and maintaining the road properly — so success depends on the evidence.

How much can I claim for pothole damage?

There is no fixed limit. You can claim the actual cost of the repair, supported by written invoices or quotes from a garage. Typical pothole-damage claims include tyre replacement (£60–£200 per tyre), alloy wheel repair or replacement (£50–£300), four-wheel alignment (£40–£80), and suspension repairs (£150–£600). For claims over £10,000 you may need to use the County Court rather than the small claims track.

What is the Section 58 defence?

Section 58 of the Highways Act 1980 lets a council defend itself against a claim if it can prove it had a reasonable system of road inspection in place and was following it. In practice, councils often reject claims by citing Section 58. You can challenge this by submitting a Freedom of Information (FOI) request for the inspection logs covering the road where the damage occurred.

How long do I have to claim for pothole damage?

The Limitation Act gives you six years from the date of the incident to bring a claim. However, the practical window is much shorter — evidence fades, the pothole may be repaired, and your memory of the exact location becomes less reliable. Most successful claims are submitted within 2–4 weeks of the incident, while the evidence is fresh.

Should I claim on my car insurance or from the council?

Try the council first. A successful council claim costs you nothing and does not affect your insurance premium. An insurance claim will usually trigger an excess (£250–£500 typically), reduce your no-claims bonus, and increase your future premiums. Only fall back on insurance if the council rejects the claim and you do not want to escalate to the small claims court.

What evidence do I need for a pothole damage claim?

Photographs of the pothole (with something for scale — a coin, your foot, a tape measure), the precise location (a road name, nearest house number, and a map screenshot), the date and time of the incident, photos of the damage to your car, and a written repair invoice or quote from a garage. The more thorough the evidence, the harder the council will find it to reject your claim.

Pothole Damage: How to Claim Repair Costs from the Council

Hit a pothole, heard the bang, and watched the warning light come on — most UK drivers have lived this exact moment at least once. With a national repair backlog estimated at over £18 billion and councils stretched thin, potholes are no longer occasional hazards; they are a structural feature of the UK road network.

The good news is that you do not have to absorb the cost yourself. Under the Highways Act 1980, the council has a legal duty to maintain its roads — and if a pothole damages your car, you can submit a claim for the repair cost. The bad news is that councils reject most pothole claims on first try, citing a defence called Section 58. With the right evidence and approach, that defence can be challenged.

Here is exactly how to do it.

What pothole damage usually looks like

Pothole impacts most commonly cause:

Tyre damage — sidewall bulges, splits, or instant deflations. Sidewall damage cannot be repaired; the tyre needs replacing. Cost: £60–£200 per tyre depending on car.
Alloy wheel damage — cracks, gouges, or bent rims. Repair: £50–£100; replacement: £150–£300+ for premium wheels.
Wheel alignment knocked out — pulling to one side, uneven tyre wear, steering feels off-centre. Cost: £40–£80 for a four-wheel alignment.
Suspension damage — broken springs, damaged dampers, or knocked-out track rod ends. Cost: £150–£600 depending on what failed.
Exhaust damage — a low-slung exhaust can be hit and torn loose. Cost: £100–£400 depending on the section.
Underbody and sump damage — rarer but serious. A cracked sump can cost £500+, plus risk of engine damage if oil is lost.

If you have hit a pothole hard, get the car inspected even if it seems to drive normally. Suspension and alignment damage is not always obvious from the driver's seat but will cost you in uneven tyre wear and reduced handling over the following months.

The £1.6 billion pothole fund — and why claims still matter

The government announced a record £1.6 billion allocation for road repairs in 2025/26, distributed to councils to address the worst of the backlog. That sounds substantial, but the National Audit Office puts the full national repair backlog at over £18 billion — so the fund covers under 10% of what's actually needed.

The practical result is that potholes are still appearing faster than councils can fix them. The fund is making a dent, not a recovery. Your right to claim against the council if its negligence damages your car remains entirely intact.

The legal basis for your claim

Two sections of the Highways Act 1980 matter:

Section 41 places a statutory duty on the highway authority (your council on most roads, National Highways on motorways and trunk A-roads) to maintain the highway.
Section 58 gives the authority a defence: if they can prove they had a reasonable system of inspection and were following it, they are not liable for damage caused by a defect they did not know about.

Most rejected claims rely on Section 58 — the council essentially says "we were inspecting properly, so this defect was an act of unavoidable wear that we could not have known about." Whether that defence actually holds up depends on what the inspection logs really show.

Step-by-step: how to make a successful claim

1. Document everything at the scene (or as soon as safe)

The moment you realise damage has occurred, the clock starts ticking. Evidence collected within the first hour is the strongest evidence you will ever have. As soon as it is safe:

Photograph the pothole from several angles, with a coin, foot, or tape measure in the frame for scale
Photograph the damage to your car — wheel, tyre, suspension component, whatever is visible
Note the precise location — road name, nearest house number or landmark, and a screenshot from Google Maps with a pin on the spot
Note the date and time, and weather conditions (was the pothole hidden by water? worse on a cold morning? note it)

If you cannot safely stop at the scene, return as soon as practical — but understand that a delay of even a few days gives the council room to argue the defect was different at the time.

2. Report the pothole on FixMyStreet or GOV.UK

Submit a report through FixMyStreet or the council's own portal. This serves two purposes:

It puts the council formally on notice of the defect
It creates a public, time-stamped record that the pothole existed on a specific date — strong supporting evidence for your claim

If you find that the pothole has already been reported by someone else weeks or months earlier and the council has not acted, that report is gold for your claim. It directly undermines any Section 58 defence.

3. Get a written repair quote from a garage

Insurance assessors and council legal teams give very little weight to verbal estimates. You need a written quote on garage letterhead specifying:

The exact work required
The parts being replaced (with part numbers if possible)
The labour cost
A clear total

Get repair quotes from local garages on BookMyGarage — enter your registration to see prices for the specific repairs you need from multiple garages near you. Getting two or three written quotes does double duty: it ensures the figure on your claim is defensible, and it shows the council you have shopped around rather than gone straight to the most expensive option.

4. Submit a formal claim to the council

Write to the council's highways or insurance department (most have a dedicated form or email address). Include:

A clear description of the incident — date, time, location
All photographs (pothole, damage, location map)
Your FixMyStreet or report reference number
The written repair quote
A short statement requesting reimbursement of the repair cost

The council has 28 days to acknowledge your claim and up to 3 months to respond fully. Many will offer a settlement quickly to avoid escalation; others will reject citing Section 58.

5. If rejected: submit an FOI request

If the council comes back citing Section 58, this is where most drivers give up — and where you should not. Submit a Freedom of Information request asking for:

The road inspection logs for the specific road for the 12 months prior to the incident
The inspection frequency and policy for that class of road (A-roads should typically be monthly; minor roads quarterly or annually)
Any prior reports of defects on that stretch (including FixMyStreet, the council's own portal, and 311 reports)

When the logs arrive, look for:

Missed inspections — if the council's own policy is monthly but the logs show two-month gaps, the defence weakens significantly
Prior reports of the same defect — if someone reported the pothole weeks before you hit it and the council took no action, Section 58 fails outright
Inadequate response times — if the inspector noted the defect but marked it "low priority" or scheduled it for repair months later, that is itself negligence

6. If still rejected: small claims court

For claims under £10,000, the Small Claims Track in the County Court is the standard route. Court fees start at £35 and rise with claim size. You do not need a solicitor — the small claims process is designed for litigants in person.

The threat of court is often enough to prompt a settlement. Councils have legal teams that calculate the cost of defending a £400 tyre claim and frequently decide to settle rather than fight it.

Should you claim on insurance instead?

Generally, no — unless your council claim has been rejected and you do not want to escalate.

A council claim costs you nothing and does not affect your premiums. An insurance claim:

Triggers your excess (£250–£500 typically)
Reduces your no-claims bonus
Increases future premiums for 3–5 years
May reduce your renewal-time bargaining power

For a £600 repair, claiming on insurance often costs you more than just paying it yourself once you factor in five years of higher premiums. The council route is almost always worth trying first.

How to protect your car going forward

You cannot avoid every pothole, but a few habits help:

Leave more space behind the car in front — gives you longer to spot defects and steer around them
Slow down through standing water — water hides potholes; a deep puddle in a tarmac road is the classic ambush
Keep tyres correctly inflated — over-inflation makes sidewall damage more likely; under-inflation makes alloy damage more likely. Stick to the door-frame sticker pressure
Replace worn tyres before they hit minimum tread — at 3mm or below, the sidewalls are easier to split
After any hard impact, get a 4-wheel alignment — alignment damage is invisible and accelerates tyre wear for thousands of miles before you notice

The bottom line

Pothole damage is no longer a rare bad-luck event in the UK — it is a predictable risk of driving on under-maintained roads. Councils have a legal duty to maintain those roads and a statutory mechanism (Section 58) to dodge liability when they have not. Most rejected claims are rejected because the driver did not have the evidence to challenge that defence.

Document the incident thoroughly, report the pothole through proper channels, get written repair quotes, and don't accept the first "no" from the council. With proper evidence — particularly FOI'd inspection logs and prior public reports — most pothole damage claims that reach a small claims court are settled in the claimant's favour.

For more guidance on getting accurate repair quotes and not being overcharged, see our guides on how to spot a garage that is overcharging you and dashboard warning lights and what they cost to fix.