The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint that he missed out on paying a reduced penalty charge notice due to delay in him receiving a notice from the Council. This is because the Council has offered to refund Mr X with the extra amount he paid and we cannot add to this.
The complaint
Mr X complains he missed out on paying a £65 penalty charge notice (PCN) as a letter sent by the Council to him about this was delayed in the post. Mr X had to pay £130 because of this. Mr X also remains unhappy about the PCN and asks us to consider what happened.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
The Ombudsman investigates complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start or may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide further investigation would not lead to a different outcome (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6)) The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone can appeal to a tribunal. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to appeal. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(a), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant and the Authority.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
The Council has offered to refund Mr X £65, which puts Mr X back in the position he would have been in had he received the letter on time. We cannot add to this.
Mr X had the right to challenge the PCN by ultimately making an appeal to the parking adjudicator at London Tribunals. It is reasonable to expect Mr X to have done this, as this is the procedure provided by Parliament for motorists to challenge PCNs.
For these reasons, we will not investigate.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because we cannot add to what the Council has done and we will not investigate the PCN as Mr X had an appeal right against it which he could have used.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman