What to do when you damage your car in potholes on the road

If you've never had problems with potholes on the roads, you can count yourself lucky! The roads in Portugal are not the best maintained in Europe and often the signs are not correctly placed. Find out what to do if your car falls victim to this situation.

When you have this misfortune, you have the right to demand reimbursement from the entity responsible for maintaining the road for the costs of repairs. To do this, you have to follow certain procedures, which can be a bit time-consuming and tedious.

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Gather evidence

The first thing you should do is take photos of the vehicle and the site. This isn't a difficult task these days, as we all carry our smartphones with us at all times, which allow us to take high-quality photographs. At this point, you should also check that there are no signs indicating that the road is in poor condition or under construction. If there are, there's no point in continuing, as the entity responsible for maintaining the road will accept no responsibility.

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Call the authorities

In order to gather as much evidence as possible, you should call the authorities to obtain a police report. This document is optional and paid for by the driver, but it is essential to present it as evidence. Make sure that the information on this document includes the absence of signs, because if they are put up in the following days you have proof that they were not correct on the day of the incident.

File a report with the responsible authority.

Submit the incident report form together with the police report to the authority responsible for maintaining the road where your car was damaged. This could be the town hall, Estradas de Portugal or another authority and, after reporting the incident, an expert opinion and/or estimate of the damage should be made.

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Wait for one of the following outcomes

• The entity responsible (or the insurer, if there is insurance) carries out an expert assessment of the claim or damage and the process proceeds as normal;

• The responsible body requests an estimate from the injured party and is responsible for paying for the repair (either directly to the garage or by reimbursing the vehicle owner directly).

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Source: acp.pt

Translated with DeepL.com