A pothole has burst my tyre – what now and how do I claim?

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2 hours agoShareSaveAdd as preferred on GoogleOlimpia ZagnatEast Midlands Investigations

BBC

So you’ve hit a pothole and blown a tyre – what now?

This despairing question has been echoed by many a motorist – often accompanied by stories of drivers having as much difficulty navigating claims as they did steering around the crater-filled surfaces in the first place.

Now a BBC investigation has revealed three in four claims for pothole compensation are being turned down.

So how can you claim, and what are the challenges in doing so?

A pothole is a depression in a road surface – often caused by ground water or wear and tear.

When water gets into cracks in the road, it leads to potholes forming, especially when it freezes and expands.

According to the RAC motoring organisation, there are currently more than one million potholes across the UK. However, the number will vary depending on the season.

It estimates that, on average, there are about six potholes per mile on council-controlled roads in England and Wales.

Meanwhile, the Asphalt Industry Alliance (AIA) – the industry body that oversees road surfacing – warned in March that the cost of fixing all the potholes on local roads in England and Wales would be an estimated £18.6bn.

Take a drive into the town of Netherfield in Nottinghamshire, and you’ll soon realise why signs like the below exist.

Resident Reg Patterson said the bumpy roads had become “part of the local environment”.

“It’s not very good,” the 68-year-old added. “There have been some humorous signs around the local area, which are quite entertaining I think.

“In the last few weeks there has been a few temporary repairs I’d say. I think, generally, they’re not very good at all.”

Fellow Netherfield neighbour Georgina Swann described the state of the roads as an “absolute nightmare”.

“There’s a Facebook group that’s dedicated to potholes around the area,” the 57-year-old added.

“The council needs to do more. It’s affecting people’s cars.

“Last time there was a local election, one of the big things was potholes. Nothing’s been done. It’s just awful.”

Swann’s frustration has been echoed by other pothole protesters in Nottinghamshire when they gathered outside County Hall earlier this year.

In response, leader of the Reform UK-run council, Mick Barton, said fixing the roads was one of his top priorities when he unveiled two JCB machines for filling in potholes.

Across the county and much further afield, potholes have been causing headaches on and off the road, and also became the subject at the top of many voters’ agenda as they headed to the polls earlier this month.

But as the problem of potholes is widening, what can you do to stop a nasty bump in the road becoming a bigger hit to your wallet?

Our BBC investigation found over 146,000 claims were submitted for pothole-inflicted vehicle damage over the past five years.

Figures – obtained through freedom of information requests – show councils across Britain have paid out about £13.5m in response to claims. However, this only covers a fraction of the total number of claims submitted.

Out of 207 local authorities that hold the information, 147 told us of the number of pothole claims received in the last five years and the ones that were successful. On average, these councils paid out 24% of pothole claims.

Back in Netherfield, further along Victoria Road, Mick Hampshire is four decades into his career as a mechanic.

He estimates he sees about five customers coming in every week after hitting a pothole – in his 40 years, he said he had never had to replace so many suspension struts, coil springs and new tyres.

“We have seen vehicles coming back with snapped coil springs again,” he said.

He then shows me under a lifted car in his garage.

“When they’re going over a pothole… what’s that?” he said, while rapping the bottom of the vehicle with his fist.

“That’s a fuel tank. Cars bottom in and it’s hitting the fuel tank, which is potentially a sitting time bomb.

“I’m potentially seeing it now when lives are being put at risk, and the roads are a seriously dangerous place to be on.”

Nadia Kerr, a solicitor at the firm Fletchers, has worked in the field of personal injury and highway claims for many years.

She said most of the claims she used to deal with related to crashes between cyclists and drivers. More recently, the focus has shifted to pothole claims.

“There has been an increase,” Kerr added. “The state of the roads, we all know, is dreadful.

“Even though the local authorities are complying with the local policy, the number of incidents that are on the road are increasing and increasing.”

Fletchers

However, the route to a successful claim is not always straightforward.

“You really need to know what you’re doing and you need to find an expert in the field, because lots of people give up along the process,” Kerr said.

“As soon as the local authority denies a claim, they tend to just advise there’s nothing else you can do and they will close the file.”

The quickest way for a council to dismiss a claim is by saying they did not know it was there to begin with, Kerr said.

“The best you can do as a road user is report the defects you can see,” she added.

“As soon as they’re reported, the local authority are on notice that they are there and they need some attention; and if they fail to have that attention… and then an accident happens, then they are much less likely to rely on that defence to avoid paying compensation.”

To report a pothole in England or Wales, enter the postcode of the road where you found the pothole on the GOV.UK website.

In Northern Ireland, you can report potholes by marking them on a map and in Scotland, you can report potholes by selecting the relevant local council here.

FixMyStreet

Kerr said third-party apps like FixMyStreet or Fill That Hole were more accessible to road users. But there’s a catch.

“The problem is that not all local authorities will accept reports from those apps,” she said.

“Sometimes they require to set up an account, a login, a password, by which time in my opinion some people give up the task of reporting a pothole.”

According to the solicitor, there are a number of reasons why a claim might be turned down.

“The local authority would often argue that they followed their processes and their policies, that they inspected the stretch of the highway as frequently as they needed to comply with their policy and that they reacted promptly to any problems,” Kerr said.

“What we try and find is a number of reports from the members of the public that the council will not have acted on.

“We often see challenges when a defect has been seen but the local authority do not think it’s problematic enough that it ought to be repaired, so we challenge that, providing evidence of measurements of the location.”

A Nottinghamshire County Council spokesperson said: “Each claim is investigated based on the evidence provided to determine whether the council has adhered to its policy and the requirements of the Highways Act 1980, the legal framework in place to deal with the management and operations of the road network in England and Wales.

“If the council can evidence that it has adhered to its policy, the claim will be repudiated, however if it is found the council has not adhered to its policy and is found to be legally liable for the incident, then the claim will be settled.”

Local authorities have also had to deal with a rise in fake or exaggerated pothole damage claims, due to the cost-of-living crisis driving a rise in fraud.

The insurance group Zurich Municipal, for example, has previously said it had detected a rising number of fraudulent claims made against councils worth millions.

A Department for Transport spokesperson added: “We’re backing local councils with a record £7.3bn to fix potholes and are already seeing results, with 15% more prevention works carried out in 2025 compared to 2024.”

Department for Transport

Sarah Gray, from Sherwood in Nottingham, said she would be left hundreds of pounds out of pocket once she got her blue Peugeot 308 repaired.

Her son became stranded on a busy road late at night after hitting a pothole on 20 February.

She then posted about it on Facebook, looking for advice on how to put a claim in.

The 56-year-old said: “Most of the comments were laughing emojis, where people have just said ‘basically there’s not much chance of getting anything’.”

Despite the reaction on social media, Sarah insisted she would still submit a claim.

So what do Sarah and other affected drivers need to do?

Solicitor Nadia Kerr said motorists must be meticulous.

Taking photos as quickly as possible of vehicle damage, the road defect, any injuries to yourself, measurements of the pothole and its position on the road all help, she said.

“We need [to know] how deep, how wide, how long the problem is – because all authorities have highway policies that will say what their minimum is before they have to do something,” Kerr added.

Until then, in Netherfield, drivers are keeping their eyes fixed forward, and navigating the roads.

“We play ‘dodge-hole’, because it’s literally trying to play the potholes all the time, ” resident Georgina Swann added.

“You’re trying to avoid them. It’s got to the point where it’s just dangerous to drive.”

Additional reporting by Ema Sabljak from the BBC England Data Unit, and Amy Sharp

Listen to BBC Radio Nottingham on Sounds and follow BBC Nottingham on Facebook, on X, or on Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk or via WhatsApp on 0808 100 2210.

More on this story

Potholes: What are they and why are they dangerous?

Why pothole repairs made this winter will not last

Pothole reports spike linked to heavy rain

Potholes map rates council road repair progress

Tributes to woman who died after falling in pothole

Related internet links

Report a pothole – England

Report a pothole – Northern Ireland

Report a pothole – Wales