Motorists can claim damages from the Randfontein Local Municipality should they suffer damage to their vehicles due to potholes.
This according to the head of communications at the Randfontein Local Municipality head of communications Phillip Motshiwa.
“We are aware of the pothole problem in Randfontein and we are working towards fixing them.
“We know that while we are currently struggling to get the potholes sorted out, there are people who suffer damage due to the potholes.
“These people should be aware that they can calim damages from the municipality for the damage suffered.
“The municipality is prepared to reimburse these people provided their claims are legit,” says Motshiwa, adding that there is a strict procedure that people must follow when submitting claims of this nature.
“When motorists wish to file for a claim, they have to fill in a claims form and submit an affidavit, together with their drivers license and three different quotations from service providers to repair the damage.
“We also require photos of the damage and an image of the pothole responsible for such damage,” says Montshiwa.
According to him, the documentation will be sent to the municipality’s insurance company for assessment.
Mothsiwa says that all claims will also be fully investigated by the roads department to ensure their validity.
Meanwhile the Herald has received numerous complaints from residents who tried to lodge claims with the municipality, with many saying that the municipality makes it nearly impossible to successfully claim for damages.
Watch this space for more as this story develops.
Who do we chat to at the Herald / Municipality to get included. I suffered a loss on 18 Feb 2014 and submitted my claim on 20 Feb. Three months later and still not sorted. They have since said that there were pothole signs that warned me (which there still aren’t) and also that I must’ve been speeding (it is a slipway and no way one can go faster than even 40km/h). The claim was originally sent to their insurance, but the insurance came back saying that the claim value was less than the municipality’s excess. In the meantime the finance department blamed the infrastructure department and the infrastructure department blames the finance department. I also understand (from finance) that there was a new director of infrastructure appointed and that he hasn’t quite hit the ground running, so there’s a bit of a delay in the system. Today we’re at day 97 since 20 Feb and counting . . . :-(
Its all good to be able to get the damage obtained from a pothole but when I requested a qwote from a service center I was notified that it will be R770 per hour for the period to compile the qwote?
I was forced to personally repair some damage obtained. This whole claim process would take months to settle.
If your car suffered a whole rim been scrapped together with the tyre, they would possibly grant you the rim purchase together with the tyre, so my question is its not advicable to have two different tyres on a car in front or back so are they going to replace the other oposite tyre too?
Please contact the journalist who wrote the story, Mabli Mathebula, on 011 693 3671. She is busy with an investigation into this whole affair.