Cambridgeshire County Council (19 010 904)
Category : Transport and highways > Highway repair and maintenance
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 23 Oct 2019
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate Mr X’s complaint that the Council will not compensate him for damage caused to his car by a pothole. The complaint is outside the Ombudsman’s legal remit as he considers it reasonable for Mr X to take legal action for the compensation he seeks.
The complaint
- The complainant, whom I shall call Mr X, complains the Council will not compensate him for damage caused to his car by a pothole.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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)
How I considered this complaint
- I have considered what Mr X said in his complaint.
What I found
- Mr X complains about the Council’s decision not to compensate him for damage caused to his car by a pothole.
Analysis
- The Ombudsman cannot determine if the Council is legally liable to pay compensation to Mr X. Only the courts can do this. There is a simple low cost procedure open to anyone to make a money claim in the courts or Mr X could consider using a ‘no win no fee’ solicitor.
- For these reasons, we consider it is reasonable to expect Mr X to take legal action and we will not therefore investigate.
Final decision
- The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. This is because it is reasonable to expect Mr X to take legal action for the compensation he seeks and the complaint is therefore outside the Ombudsman’s legal remit.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman