The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about enforcement action taken on an unpaid parking penalty charge notice as it is reasonable to expect the complainant to have pursued the complaint with the enforcement agents.
The complaint
Miss X complains the Council’s enforcement agent (bailiff) wrongly escalated the enforcement of an unpaid parking penalty charge notice (PCN), which resulted in extra costs being added to the account. Miss X is unhappy the Council did not respond to her complaint and that her offer of a payment arrangement has not been accepted. Miss X says she has been caused stress and worry and wants the bailiff to agree to her offer of payment.
The Ombudsman’s role and power It is our decision whether to start, and when to end an investigation into something the law allows us to investigate. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 24A(6) and 34B(8), as amended) We investigate 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 continue an investigation if we decide there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Miss X complains the bailiff did not take account of her attempts to contact them before it progressed the case to the enforcement stage, which added extra charges to the debt.
In its complaint response to Miss X, the bailiff advised it would review this if Miss X could provide evidence of the calls made. I consider it would have been reasonable for Miss X to have done this, rather than complaining to us, as the bailiff is best placed to resolve the matter in the first instance.
The bailiff complaint response also signposted Miss X to help she could obtain regarding her options for paying off the debt and in dealing with this matter. I recognise Miss X would like to set her own payment arrangement, but it is not our role to negotiate a specific payment plan with the bailiff, and it is unlikely we could add to what it has already said.
I recognise Miss X is unhappy that the Council allowed its bailiff to respond to her complaints, but we will not investigate as it is unlikely this indicates fault and additionally, there is insufficient evidence this caused Miss X an injustice. The bailiff provided a full and detailed response to Miss X in response to her complaint.
Final decision
We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because it was open to her to pursue this with the bailiff, it is unlikely we will find fault causing significant injustice and we cannot achieve the outcome Miss X seeks.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman