Pothole damage
 

Just found out that I have a busted damper and possibly a damaged ball joint from running over a pothole. Has anyone had any experience with billing the city for the damage? If so, please chime in--I haven't a clue how to begin. I know it's probably a futile attempt, but if all it costs me is a little time and effort it would be worth a try.

In the uk it is a case of taking pictures of the fault that cased it and presenting them along with the repair bill as a compensation claim

The uk is quite nice then... Good luck with that in the USA especially with the economy and federal, state, and local/municipality spending cuts (part of the reason those potholes don't get repaired incidentally) anyone would be hard pressed to get a claim refund... Keep is posted as to how this goes, state to state or city law may dictate response differently in each case.

In a lot of places in the US, the only chance you even have is if the pothole was reported and not fixed in a "reasonable" amount of time. The specifics and how long is "reasonable" will vary state to state.

Yeah, I did a bit more research, and it seems like a waste of time.

claim against your own insurance company

Wouldn't I need to have filed at the time? It happened several weeks ago, but the damage only really became noticeable recently. Of course, then there's the possibility of a rate increase.

^^^ no you can file it after the fact. If you have a pic of the delinquint pothole that would help. Dunno aboiut your rate increase, I don't think it would since it's unvoluntary and non-liability. What is your Ins Co? each one varies. also depends on length of time you've been with them, your record, history of incidents, and policy coverage in general.

It's not a wreck - so would it really matter if you fudged the accident date a bit ;) Got to AM or an indy shop and see what it costs to fix, compare that to your deductible and anticipated rate increases and then make a decision.