Pothole flattened your tire? Filing a city claim

Report the pothole to the city first and get a case or complaint number, then file a written property-damage claim within that city's deadline, with photos, a repair estimate and the exact location and date. Most cities, including all ten below, only pay when they can be shown to have known about that specific pothole beforehand and failed to fix it in a reasonable time; a claim without that prior-notice evidence is usually denied regardless of how real the damage is.

Why "the city hit my tire" is not enough on its own

Cities generally have governmental immunity for road conditions, with a carved-out exception when the city had notice of the exact defect and did not act. That means the claim is not really about your tire; it is about proving the pothole was known and ignored. The single most useful thing you can do is report the pothole through the city's own reporting channel, by address or coordinates, the moment you hit it or as soon as you notice it, even if you are not filing a damage claim right away. That report becomes part of the record a later claim can point to.

The four things every claim needs

1. The exact location and date/time. Not "near the intersection," but the address or nearest cross street, and which lane or side of the road.
2. Photos of the pothole itself, ideally before it gets patched, plus photos of the tire and wheel damage.
3. A repair estimate or paid invoice from the shop or service that fixed it.
4. Proof the city knew. A prior 311/CRM complaint about that same pothole (yours or someone else's), a prior repair request, or evidence the pothole was large enough or old enough that routine inspection should have caught it.

Where to file, and the deadline, by metro

Metro	File with	Typical deadline
New York	NYC Comptroller (eClaim, or the paper Notice of Claim)	90 days from the incident
Chicago	Office of the City Clerk, Claims Division	Report promptly; claim reviewed by the Committee on Finance
Pittsburgh	Department of Law, Report of Claim form	File promptly after a 311 report; the pothole must have gone unpatched 5+ days after being reported
Dallas	Office of Risk Management, Notice of Claim	6 months from the incident
Denver	City Attorney's Office, Notice of Claim	182 days from discovering the damage
Los Angeles	Office of the City Clerk, Claim for Damages (Form 100-A)	1 year for property damage
Atlanta	Mayor or President of the Atlanta City Council, written claim	6 months from the incident
Boise	City Clerk's Office, Claim for Damage form	180 days from the incident
Chattanooga	City Attorney via 311/claims portal	12 months (Tennessee Governmental Tort Liability Act)
Savannah	Clerk of Council, Damage and Claim Petition	6 months from the incident (Georgia claim rules apply the same way as Atlanta)

Deadlines and forms change; confirm the current version on the city's own page before you file; the citations above are dated 2026-09-22.

Be realistic about the odds

Reporting outlets in more than one of these cities have found that the majority of pothole damage claims are denied, and Atlanta's own reported approval rate was under 25% in local reporting. That is not a reason to skip filing; it is a reason to file with the strongest possible prior-notice evidence rather than assuming the damage alone will carry the claim. A claim that documents a specific, previously reported pothole does measurably better than one that describes "bad road conditions" generally.

What to do about the tire itself first

Do not drive on a tire that took a hard pothole hit even if it still looks round. A sidewall bulge, a bent wheel, or a slow leak that starts hours later are common after a pothole strike and are not always visible at the roadside. Pothole tire damage: what to check and bubble in tire tread cover the warning signs. If the tire is flat now, flat tire in the driveway covers the safe next step. Repair or replacement, when we come to you, runs $169 for the first tire and $50 for each additional one, tax added at checkout, and if the inspection finds the tire unrepairable the $99 inspection visit is the only charge, with the rest refunded. Filing a city claim and booking the repair are two separate, independent steps; you do not need the claim resolved before you get the tire fixed, and the claim does not depend on which shop or mobile service did the work.

Questions people ask

• Do I need a police report to file a pothole claim? Not in most of the cities above; a police report matters more for a collision than for standalone pothole damage. Check the specific city's claim form, since a few ask whether one exists rather than requiring one.
• What if I never reported the pothole before I hit it? You can still file. Your claim just relies more heavily on the pothole being large, deep or old enough that the city should have found it through routine inspection, which is a harder case to prove than a documented prior report.
• Can I file if the pothole is on a state highway, not a city street? No, not with the city. Atlanta's own guidance, for example, notes GDOT handles interstates and state routes, not the city; check who owns the specific road before filing with the wrong agency.
• Does keeping the damaged tire help the claim? It can. Some adjusters want to see the actual tire or wheel, not just photos, so ask the shop to hold it until your claim is resolved if you plan to file.
• How long does a city take to decide? It varies: Los Angeles cites roughly 45 days by statute, Denver notes the city has 90 days to respond and treats no response as a rejection. Expect months, not weeks, in most of these cities.
• If the claim is denied, is that the end of it? Not necessarily; a denial is often the point where people consult an attorney about small-claims court or a formal appeal, which is outside the scope of this page. The claim forms above are the starting point either way.