Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate Mr D’s complaint about damage to his vehicle. The complaint is late, and the courts are better placed to decide if the Council has properly maintained the highway and is liable for the damage to Mr D’s car.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall call Mr D, complains his car was damaged when he hit potholes on the highway. Mr D complains the incident was in June 2018 but the Council delayed dealing with the matter, has failed to carry out repairs to the highway and has now refused his insurance claim. Mr D says he has wasted a lot of time dealing with the matter and has a financial loss of £250 plus VAT.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
3. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
4. 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)

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How I considered this complaint

5. I have considered the information Mr D provided when he made his complaint and I have considered the Ombudsman’s role and powers.

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What I found

6. Mr D hit the potholes in June 2018. As this was more than 12 months before Mr D contacted the Ombudsman, the complaint is late and the restriction in paragraph 3 applies.
7. There are no good reasons for the Ombudsman to exercise his discretion and now investigate this late complaint. This is because even if the complaint had been made in time, the Ombudsman would not investigate. Whether the Council has failed to properly maintain the highway and is liable for the damage to Mr D’s car are matters only the courts can decide. It is therefore reasonable to expect Mr D to use or have used his right to go to court to try and recover the losses he claims.

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Final decision

8. The complaint is late, and the courts are better placed to decide if the Council has properly maintained the highway and is liable for the damage to Mr D’s car.

Investigator’s final decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman