Summary: Mr B complains about enforcement action taken against him by the Council and its agents for unpaid penalty charges. The Ombudsman will not investigate the complaint because it falls outside our jurisdiction.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I refer to as Mr B, complains about the Council’s handling of two parking penalty charges issued against him. He says he had no knowledge of the charges before the Council passed the debt to its enforcement agents because incorrect contact details were used for him. As a result he did not have the opportunity to pay the initial charge without the addition of enforcement costs.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
3. 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)

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How I considered this complaint

4. In considering the complaint I reviewed the information provided by Mr B and gave him the opportunity to comment on my draft decision and considered what he said.

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What I found

5. The Council issued two parking penalty charges for a car registered to Mr B while driven by his daughter because it had been parked in a Council car park without paying a parking charge.
6. The Council contacted the DVLA for the registered driver details and based on this information sent details of the penalty charges to the address it had been given. Mr B had moved from this address a number of years before. Unfortunately, while he had changed his address details for his driving licence, he had not updated his registered keeper details.
7. As the charges remained unpaid, the Council passed the debt on to enforcement agents for collection and supplied to the agents the same information that had been provided by the DVLA.
8. When Mr B became aware of the debt he paid the outstanding amount to the agents but then complained to the Council about the way the matter had been dealt with, highlighting amongst other issues the wrong spelling of his name and the use of incorrect addresses for him.
9. The Council responded to the issues he raised but told him it had followed the proper procedures and that there were no grounds for it to reset the charges back to the initial penalty charges. However, it repeated information previously given to him about the Late Witness Statement procedure and suggested he look into.

Assessment

10. A registered keeper can make a Late Witness Statement to the Traffic Enforcement Centre (TEC) with the appropriate form and an explanation of why they did not apply sooner. The TEC will decide whether to accept the late application and, if it does, this has the same effect as a valid Witness Statement.  If the TEC refuses the application, the keeper can apply for a review of its decision by a District Judge at their local County Court. 
11. As Mr B can apply to file a late Witness Statement his complaint falls outside our jurisdiction because he has an alternative remedy via the courts which we would reasonably expect him to make use of.

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Final decision

12. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. This is because it falls outside our jurisdiction.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman