Coventry City Council (06A15757)

Environmental health                 Maladministration causing injustice

22 November 2007

The complaint

Ms Z complained that the Council wrongly decided that her car was abandoned and, without notice to her, removed it from the street where she lived and destroyed it. She also complained that the Council did not immediately inform the Driving and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) that it had destroyed the vehicle.

What happened

Ms Z said that she had had some disputes with one of her neighbours about where she parked her car. The Council received information that the car had been abandoned. An officer inspected the vehicle and, using a 13-point checklist, assessed whether it should be dealt with as having been abandoned. He concluded that it should. A different officer carried out administrative checks with the DVLA which revealed that the car was taxed and the registered owner lived next to where the car was parked. This information was not passed to the inspection officer, who arranged for the car to be removed and destroyed. The inspection officer told the Ombudsman’s investigator that he would not have done this without contacting the registered owner if he had known she lived so close to where the car was parked.

The Council informed the Ombudsman that it had a policy of destroying abandoned vehicles if they were valued at less than £1,000. However, it provided no evidence of this policy and it used inaccurate information when providing evidence of the value of the vehicle. Had accurate information been used, the car would have been valued at over £1,000 and would not have been destroyed.

The company used by the Council to carry out the destruction was responsible for informing the DVLA and for issuing certificates of destruction. Because of a minor error in the original registration of the vehicle (which meant that relevant numbering did not match), the DVLA did not record the destruction and no certificate of destruction was sent. This meant that, when the tax on the vehicle expired, the DVLA pursued Ms Z for unpaid tax/failure to make a statutory off road notification. Although she raised this with the Council, the Council failed to take action and Ms Z paid the fixed penalty to avoid further formal action by the DVLA.

The Ombudsman’s view

The Ombudsman concluded that:

• the Council’s policy on abandoned vehicles at the time was inadequate and not fit for purpose;
• the Council did not properly ascertain the value of the vehicle and wrongly decided that it was fit only for destruction; and
• the Council did not take sufficient steps to ensure its contractor issued a certificate of destruction and failed to keep Ms Z advised of the situation – because of this she was penalised by the DVLA.

Outcome

During the investigation the Council acknowledged its fault, brought forward a review of its policy on abandoned vehicles, and agreed to pay Ms Z £1,780 made up as follows:

• £1,380 for the value of the car at the time it was removed;
• £100 for the stress she was put under by DVLA;
• £100 for the penalty and costs paid to the DVLA; and
• £200 for her time and trouble. 

Date Updated: 13/01/09