Summary: Mr X complained about the way a penalty charge notice (PCN) was issued. The Council has refunded the payments Mr X made. The Council has also agreed the Ombudsman’s recommendations to apologise to Mr X for the delay in responding and remind officers they can consider complaints regarding PCNs.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall refer to as Mr X complains about the Council's handling of a penalty charge notice (PCN). He says that he did not receive the PCN and does not believe it was sent to him. He also says he contacted the Council about the PCN using its online form but did not receive a response

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word fault to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. If there has been fault which has caused an injustice, we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
3. If we are satisfied with a council’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(i), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I have discussed the complaint with the complainant and considered the complaint and the copy correspondence provided by the complainant. I have made enquiries of the Council and considered the comments and documents the Council provided. I have also considered the complainant’s and the Council’s comments on my draft decision.

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What I found

5. The Council said it issued a PCN for a moving traffic contravention in May 2019. The charge was £130, or £65 if paid within 14 days. The Council said it sent the PCN to Mr X at his home address in July 2019 after first issuing it to the lease company and then to his employer. Mr X says he did not receive the PCN. However, he said his employer, from whom he leases the car, did advise him that a PCN had been issued by the Council, but did not provide details.
6. In August, because he had not paid, the Council sent Mr X a charge notice stating it had increased the charge to the full £195. Mr X received this. He contracted the Council via its online “ask parking” enquiry form. He said he accepted he had to pay the charge, but he had not received the PCN the Council should have sent. The Council sent an automatic acknowledgment by email, but did not respond to his enquiry.
7. Mr X visited the Council on 4 September because he had no response. The officer could not answer his query but gave him a copy of the PCN. Mr X noted the PCN had no date of issue.
8. The next day Mr X received the Council’s pre debt notice saying it would send the debt to Northampton County Court if he did not pay £195 within 14 days. Mr X paid £195. He complained to the Council that it failed to inform him of the PCN and failed to respond to his online enquiry. He said he would have paid the £65 PCN if he had received it. He asked for refund of £130 and an apology. He found the Council’s demand was intimidating. He had paid to prevent it going to court and further charges.
9. The Council responded at stage one and said there were no grounds to refund £130. It said its PCN had not been returned by the Royal Mail as undelivered, therefore it was deemed as served. It also advised that he had paid and so it considered he had accepted liability. The Council said that “the issuing and challenging of PCNs is subject to quasi-judicial legislation aligned with statutory guidelines and as such are not dealt with within the Council’s corporate complaint procedure.”
10. Mr X complained further that the Council had not answered his questions. It had not responded regarding its failure to reply to his online form or regarding the undated PCN. He said this indicated the PCN was not sent.
11. The Council responded that it had no trace of Mr X’s online enquiry and therefore it could not establish whether it would have given him information about the statutory process to follow if he had failed to receive the PCN. The Council also wrote to Mr X refusing to escalate his complaint to its final stage because it said challenging the issue of a PCN was not dealt with under its complaint procedure.
12. In its response to our enquiries the Council recognised the PCN was undated. It said this raised doubts about whether it had been issued to Mr X. It has cancelled the PCN and refunded £195 to Mr X.

Analysis

13. The Council has accepted that it may not have issued the PCN. However, I consider there was fault by the Council because it could have recognised this earlier. Mr X sent an online enquiry which the Council received but did not respond to. He also visited the Council and advised he had not received the PCN.
14. The Council does not appear to have advised him about making a statutory declaration that he did not receive the PCN. A statutory declaration is a sworn oath signed before a commissioner for oaths such as a solicitor, or an Officer of a County Court stating that the PCN was not received. This is fault.
15. The Council also rejected Mr X’s stage one complaint and did not escalate it to stage two on the basis that it did not deal with challenges to PCN within its complaints procedure. While in general the process for challenging PCN’s is via the appeal process, there are challenges to PCNs which can and should be considered via the complaint procedure. The Council has the discretion to cancel a PCN at any point, even if it has been paid. If a Council rejects all complaints about PCNs without due consideration, it could appear that it is fettering its discretion.

Agreed action

16. The Council has cancelled the PCN and issued a refund. This went some way towards remedying the injustice to Mr X. However, I recommended the Council should also within one month of my decision
• apologise to Mr X for its failure to respond.
• remind officers that they can consider complaints regarding PCNs and that the Council has the discretion to cancel a PCN at any point in the process if it is appropriate.
17. The Council has agreed to my recommendations.

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Final decision

18. The Council has agreed to my recommendations to remedy this complaint and so I have completed my investigation and closed the complaint

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman