Birmingham City Council (20 011 439)
Category : Transport and highways > Highway repair and maintenance
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 09 Mar 2021
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: Mr X complains the Council will not pay for repairs needed to his car after it was damaged by a defect in the road. We will not investigate as this matter is ultimately for the courts to decide.
The complaint
- Mr X complains the Council will not pay for repairs needed to his car after it was damaged by a defect in the road.
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 and sent him my draft decision on it for his comments. I considered the comments Mr X made in response.
What I found
- Mr X says his car was damaged due to a badly maintained road. Mr X complains the Council has refused to pay for the repairs that were needed to his car.
- The Council has denied liability for the damage.
Analysis
- We cannot determine if the Council is legally liable for the damage to Mr X’s car or if compensation should be paid. Only the courts can do this and there is a simple, low-cost procedure open to anyone to make a money claim in the courts
- For this reason, it is reasonable to expect Mr X to resort to court action for the compensation he seeks and the complaint is therefore outside our legal remit.
Final decision
- My decision is we will not investigate this complaint. This is because Mr X can reasonably take court action for the compensation he seeks.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman