Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council removing and disposing of his vehicle. There is not enough evidence of fault by the Council to warrant an investigation.

The complaint

1. Mr X says he left his foreign-registered vehicle parked legally but unattended for two and a half months. During that time, someone reported it as abandoned. Mr X complains the Council failed to do enough to try and contact him before removing and destroying his vehicle.
2. Mr X has lost his vehicle and its contents, some of which he says were valuable or had sentimental value. He wants the Council to compensate him in the sum of £15,000.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. The Ombudsman investigates complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service but must use public money carefully. We do not start or may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information from Mr X, relevant legislation and regulations, and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. The Council first received a report about Mr X’s vehicle in early October 2021. The person reporting it claimed it had been there for four weeks, the time required before a vehicle can be reported to the Council as abandoned. The person stated the vehicle’s windscreen was smashed and had been replaced with paper. A Council officer visited the vehicle on the same day and found it as reported. The officer placed a 7-day notice on the vehicle, requiring its owner to move it, otherwise it would be removed and disposed of. The officer did not send a letter to the registered owner. The Council says this was not done because the vehicle had a foreign registration plate.
6. The officer returned to the vehicle 20 days later to find that the notice was still attached and the vehicle had not moved. The officer noted damage to the roof and windscreen and decided it was an abandoned vehicle. The Council removed the vehicle the same day, to be stored for 21 days and disposed of if not claimed. The officer did not send a letter to the registered owner as the vehicle had a foreign registration plate. They notified the local police about the vehicle. The police did not have any record of the vehicle on its systems. The police’s system is linked to the HPI Ltd database. The Council says it also did an HPI search using its own account but found no details of the vehicle. Mr X’s vehicle remained unclaimed so was disposed of after the 21 days had passed.
7. The Council fulfilled the requirements as set down by the Removal and Disposal of Vehicles Regulations 1986 and the Refuse Disposal (Amenity) Act 1978. For Mr X’s foreign-registered vehicle, the Council was required to seek ownership details from the police and HPI, which is what it did. There is not enough evidence of Council fault in the Council’s actions or how it followed the processes here to warrant an investigation.
8. I understand Mr X believes the Council could and should have taken other actions to trace him as the vehicle’s owner, so it could contact him when it served the 7‑day notice, or when it removed the vehicle. He considers they should have:
• contacted Cambridgeshire County Council who are in charge of parking control;
• contacted the equivalent of the DVLA in the country in which his vehicle was registered, to request ownership details, using an English-language website available for that purpose;
• consulted other online vehicle information websites;
• looked in the glove compartment where he had left documents with his details.
9. But none of those actions are required of the Council. We can only consider whether a council has kept to the processes it was required to follow, as set down by relevant laws and regulations. We cannot say a council is at fault for not taking additional actions someone wanted them to take but which the laws and regulations did not require them to take.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council to justify an investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman