Pothole claims with City of Vancouver
 

It's been a few years since this was last asked so thought i'd revisit it. Has anyone successfully had the city of vancouver pay for pothole damage? I hit a massive one this weekend and it destroyed my tire.

It looks like the pothole has appeared in a spot that was previously cut up by road crews and then patched. The patch obviously failed. Right in the intersection and so unavoidable.

Has anyone recently tried and succeeded or failed?

Unrelated but where was this pothole? I heard there was one that opened up on 12th and Commercial the other day that was quite the problem.

if you take pictures of the said pothole and the damage at the time of occurrence and claimed it with ICBC, might work..
IF theres video evidence, might work even more/faster?

I remember reading a few years back that someone did this and it worked..

ICBC will claim it against your comprehensive, you have to pay deductible and rates will increase as it’s a ‘single vehicle accident’. They won’t help you for shit

Edit: collision not comprehensive.

good luck
my understanding from icbc is it's very difficult..you basically have to prove the city is being negligent to even have a case (ie. they've been told to fix the pothole but chose not to do it)

Maybe you could win it by asking the city if they've been informed about the pothole. If they have then you may have grounds that they knew it needed replacing but it wasn't replaced.

I tried and failed... but file a claim anyways, can't hurt.

Make notes, take pictures, etc like everyone else says...

They'll pay you if it was found that they didn't fix it in a timely manner. That means within 2 days of being notified of the pothole. If someone reported the pothole and it's not fixed within 2 days then you'll have a case.

If it hasn't been reported then the city is not liable for something they don't know about.

Successfully filed a claim last year. The sun hadn't come out yet and I hit the biggest pothole. Instant destruction to my rim and tire.
I called the city a few hours later, and apparently I was already the fifth person to complain about that exact pothole. A crew had it filled by noon.

The overall claim process was pretty painless as the city didn't put up a fight when I claimed my repairs. This was in Abbotsford though. i'd imagine the process to be very different in Vancouver.

so you'll only really have a case when multiple claims are made on that same block of street within the same day or so?

otherwise how can you prove the city is neglecting to patch it? don't know if that's something they'll admit over email.

I understand it will be tough and that I'll have to prove some kind of negligence. From my perspective, this pothole appeared in a patch that was clearly already dug-up for some kind of construction and there was a failure to patch it properly. I have video, photos etc taken from the location.

Everything you said is correct, except it's a collision claim, not comprehensive.

Remember when 41st was dug up? All the manhole covers where exposed and I saw one at the last second. It wasn't flagged and I knicked it and bent the lip of my rim.

ICBC said if I claim, it's a collision and I still had to pay the deductible. They told me I can sue the city if I'd like but they would have told me to go fuck myself and go ride a bike in the bike lane.

So I did. I jerked it then I started riding a bike :okay:

Ps, I took photos of the raised manhole cover and documented everything. Didn't matter.

How do you know if the pot hole was reported and not fixed within two days?

After you get pot hole damage, immediately get a friend to report it, 6 hours later you make a claim, then you have a case?