Summary: We will not investigate most of Mr X’s complaint about damage caused to his vehicle by the Council because it is reasonable for him to take the matter to court. We will not investigate the Council’s complaints handling because the claimed injustice is not significant enough.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained the Council:
1. damaged his vehicle; and
2. failed to consider his complaint in line with its published policy.
2. Mr X said the matter caused him distress and frustration.
3. Mr X wants the Council to apologise and pay for the damage to his vehicle.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

4. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
5. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone could take the matter to court. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to go to court. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended)
6. We will not usually investigate complaint handling if we are not investigating the rest of the complaint. This is because there is not usually enough injustice to justify us doing so. We collect information about particularly poor complaint handling practice and report this back to organisations. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), section 34B(8))

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How I considered this complaint

7. I considered information provided by the complainant.
8. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

Vehicle damage

9. We will not investigate this complaint. The role of the Ombudsman is to consider complaints of administrative fault. We cannot decide liability in complaints about damage to property; only the courts can do this. Mr X could submit a claim to the Council’s insurers. If the claim is rejected, or there are delays in that process, Mr X could take the matter to court. It is reasonable to expect Mr X to do so as it is the only way he can achieve the outcome he wants.

Complaint handling

10. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaints about the Council’s complaint handling. Because we are not investigating the substantive matter, any claimed injustice about delays in the Council’s complaints handling is not significant enough to warrant an investigation by the Ombudsman.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate most of Mr X’s complaint because it is reasonable for him to take the matter to court. We will not investigate the remainder because the claimed injustice is not significant enough.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman