Service updates

Making a claim

Last updated

29 Jun 2023

Before making a claim, you should also read our Insurance Team's guidance document about insurance claims against Stirling Council. 

Making a claim is a way to request financial compensation. You might decide to do this if:

  • you've suffered a personal injury or damage to your personal belongings
  • you believe this was Stirling Council's fault

If you make claim against us, it'll be decided on the basis of 'legal liability'. This means that you must prove that we've either:

  • been negligent
  • failed in our statutory duty

You'll only get compensation if you can prove this.

How you can make a claim

The quickest and easiest way to make a claim is to use our online forms.

You can also send details of a claim in writing to:

Insurance Team
Stirling Council
Teith House
Stirling
FK7 7QA

Information you'll need to provide

Legally, you're the 'claimant' in this situation. This means it's your responsibility to prove your claim by providing us with accurate:

  • dates
  • locations
  • details of the incident

Depending on the type of claim you're making, you might also have to provide us with:

  • descriptions of defects
  • details of injuries you received
  • details of any treating doctor or NHS hospital

If we need this sort of information, we'll say this at the start of the relevant form.

Road and footway defect claims

Housing claim

General claim

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If you make a fraudulent claim or exaggerate details, we may pass your details to the Procurator Fiscal. You could then face criminal prosecution.

What happens when you submit a claim

Acknowledgement

Once you've submitted a claim, we’ll send you an acknowledgement within 14 days. If you use one of our online forms, we’ll normally do this in 3 days.

Investigation

To establish whether Stirling Council is legally liable, we'll undertake a full investigation into the circumstances of the claim.

Decision

On average, it takes around:

  • 3 months for us to make a decision about a property-only claim
  • 9 months for us to make a decision about a straightforward personal injury claim

However, we assess claims on a case-by-case basis, and decisions can take longer in certain circumstances. For example, we may not process claims as quickly if we get a lot of weather-related forms at the same time.

Other types of claim

Claims about contractors

The Council is not responsible for the activities of any of our contractors, even if they're acting on our behalf. If you want to make this sort of claim, you must contact the contractor in question.

Third-party motor claims involving Council vehicles

This sort of claim is handled in a different way. To get guidance on what you should do, you can either: