Essex County Council (19 015 956)
Category : Transport and highways > Other
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 08 Jan 2020
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint that the Council will not compensate her for punctures caused to her car when she visited the Council’s recycling centre. It is reasonable to expect Mrs X to resort to court action for the compensation she seeks and the complaint is therefore outside the Ombudsman’s legal remit.
The complaint
- The complainant, whom I shall call Mrs X, complains the Council will not compensate her for punctures caused to her car when she visited the Council’s recycling centre.
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 Mrs X said in her complaint.
What I found
- Mrs X complains the Council will not pay for repairs to her car after she had two punctures after visiting the Council’s recycling site.
Assessment
- The Ombudsman cannot determine if the Council is legally liable for the damage caused to Mrs X’s car or whether it should pay compensation. Ultimately, only the courts can do this. There is a low cost procedure open to anyone to make a money claim through the courts or Mrs X could consider using a ‘no win no fee’ solicitor.
- For these reasons, it is reasonable to expect Mrs X to resort to court action and the complaint is therefore outside our legal remit and we will not investigate
Final decision
- My decision is that the Ombudsman should not investigate this complaint. This is because Mrs X has the right to take court action for the compensation she seeks. It is reasonable to expect her to do this and so the complaint is outside the Ombudsman’s legal remit.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman