Summary: Ms X complained about the way the Council dealt with two Penalty Charge Notices it issued against her and the way the Council sought to recover the debt. We have not found the Council at fault for how it dealt with the Penalty Charge Notices and its decision to take enforcement action, however there was some fault with how the Council communicated with Ms X. The Council agreed to apologise to Ms X to remedy the injustice caused.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains about the way the Council treated her after issuing her with two Penalty Charge Notices. Ms X says the Council has not taken into account payments she made and passed the debt onto its enforcement agents.

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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 significant injustice, or that could cause injustice to others in the future we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
3. If there was no fault in how the organisation made its decision, we cannot question the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)
4. If we are satisfied with an organisation’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

5. As part of this investigation I considered the information provided by Ms X and the Council. I made enquiries with the Council and considered the information received in response. I sent a draft of this decision to Ms X and the Council and considered comments received in response.

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What I found

Law and guidance

6. If a civil enforcement officer believes a parking contravention has occurred, they may fix a penalty charge notice (PCN) to the vehicle, give it to the person appearing to be in charge of the vehicle or send it by post to the registered keeper of the vehicle.
7. Statutory Guidance ‘How local authorities should enforce parking restrictions’ sets out the way councils should deal with PCNs.
8. A motorist can pay a reduced penalty charge within 14 days, (or 21 days if a council serves the penalty charge notice by post). The discount is currently 50%. Where an informal challenge is made within the discounted period Paragraph 10.12 of the Statutory Guidance recommends that a further 14 day discount period is offered.  
9. A motorist can pay a reduced penalty charge within 14 days, (or 21 days if a council serves the penalty charge notice by post). The discount is currently 50%. Where an in-formal challenge is made within the discounted period Paragraph 10.12 of the Statutory Guidance recommends that a further 14 day discount period is offered. If a council rejects an informal challenge, it should tell the motorist about the right of appeal. 
10. If the penalty charge is not paid, the council may send a notice to owner (NtO) to the keeper of the vehicle at the address where the vehicle is registered. This provides an opportunity for the keeper to either pay the penalty charge at the full amount or to make formal representations against the penalty charge within 28 days of the date of the notice.
11. If the keeper does not appeal, or appeals unsuccessfully, and still does not pay the penalty charge, a council can issue a charge certificate.  A charge certificate increases the penalty payable by a further 50% (from, say, £130 to £195).

If a penalty charge remains unpaid after 14 days from the charge certificate, the council can register it as a debt at the Traffic Enforcement Centre (TEC) at Northampton County Court, adding further court costs (currently £9). Within seven days the council must then send an order informing the keeper that within a further 21 days from receipt of the order, they must either pay the amount outstanding or make a witness statement to the TEC. If the debt remains unpaid and no witness statement has been made, the council may apply to the TEC for a warrant of execution which it may pass to bailiffs to recover the amount owing. 

12. The ‘Taking Control of Goods (Fees) Regulations 2014’ sets out the fees an enforcement agent can charge when recovering debt and the three stages they must follow:
13. The Compliance Stage – an enforcement agent must issue a notice of enforcement. The fee for this stage is £75.
14. The Enforcement Stage – this stage starts once an enforcement agent has made a first visit. This must be at least seven clear days after sending the notice of enforcement. At this visit the agent can take control of goods. The fee for this stage is £235. 

What happened

15. Ms X received two PCN’s from the Council in June 2023. I have detailed the timelines for each one below. Both PCN’s related to parking in the same area and incurred charges of £65 each.

PCN 22 June 2023

16. On 22 June 2022, Ms X received a PCN for parking in an area without a permit or without paying on a parking app.
17. Ms X put in an informal challenge to the PCN. In late June 2023, the Council rejected her informal challenge and explained there was signage in place which explained people parking in the area needed to display a permit or pay using a parking app. The Council explained Ms X’s right to appeal the charges once she received a NtO.
18. In mid-July 2023 the Council extended the time Ms X could pay the PCN at the reduced rate of £65 until 27 July 2023.
19. In mid-August 2023, the Council sent Ms X a NtO as she had not paid the PCN. As she had missed the chance to pay at the reduced rate the charge increased to £130. The NtO told Ms X if she did not pay within 28 days the charge would increase to £195 and about her appeal rights.
20. In mid-September 2023, the Council sent Ms X a Charge Certificate. This told her if she did not pay within 14 days the Council would apply to the County Court to register the Charge Certificate. The Council also said if the charges remained unpaid it could seek to recover these through enforcement agents.
21. In late-September 2023, the Council sent Ms X a reminder letter and told her to pay the outstanding amount or the Council would pass the matter to its enforcement agents.
22. In late October 2023, the County Court made an order to recover the unpaid penalty charge. The Council sent this to Ms X.
23. The Council passed the debt to its enforcement agent on 9 January 2024 and several weeks later the enforcement agent sent a notice of enforcement to Ms X. This added a further £75 onto the debt.
24. In early February 2024, the enforcement agent visited Ms X. This added a further £235 onto the debt.
25. The Council has recorded that Ms X paid £20 on 17 January 2024, £20 on 1 March 2024, £20 on 16 April 2024 and £30 on 5 June 2024.

PCN 28 June 2023

26. On 28 June 2022, Ms X received a PCN for parking in an area without a permit or without paying on a parking app.
27. Ms X challenged this informally in mid-July 2023, however the Council rejected this on the basis that there was clear signage in place which explained the bay Ms X parked in was for people with a permit or people paying to park using a parking app. The Council extended the time Ms X could pay the charge at the reduced rate of £65 until 27 August 2023 and told her the charge would increase to £130 after this. The Council also told Ms X she could appeal the charge once she received the NtO.
28. In late July 2023 Ms X paid £25 and in early September 2023 Ms X paid a further £20.
29. In late September 2023, the Council sent a NtO to Ms X as she had not paid the PCN. As she had missed the chance to pay at the reduced rate the charge had increased to £130. This told Ms X if she did not pay within 28 days the charge would increase to £195. The NtO also told Ms X about her appeal rights.
30. The Council sent Ms X a Charge Certificate at the end of October 2023 as she had not paid the charge or appealed. This told her if she did not pay within 14 days the Council would apply to the County Court to register the Charge Certificate. The Council also said if the charges remained unpaid it could seek to recover these through enforcement agents.
31. In early November 2023, the Council sent Ms X a reminder letter to pay the outstanding charge or it would pass the debt to its enforcement agent. In late November 2023, the County Court made an order to recover the unpaid penalty charge. The Council sent this to Ms X.
32. The Council passed the debt to its enforcement agent on 9 January 2024 and several weeks later the enforcement agent sent a notice of enforcement to Ms X. This added a further £75 onto the debt.
33. In late January 2024, the enforcement agent visited Ms X. This added a further £235 onto the debt.
34. The Council has recorded that Ms X made further payments of £40 on 25 January 2024, £70 on 6 February 2024 and £40 on 1 March 2024.

Ms X’s complaint

35. Ms X contacted the Council in January 2024 as she had been contacted by enforcement agents. Ms X said she had started to make payments via the Council’s automated telephone service and attached reference numbers for two payments.
36. In early February 2024, the Council wrote to Ms X and said it had only received one payment from her in January 2024 but the charge had already been passed to enforcement agents at this stage. This response only related to one PCN.
37. Ms X contacted the Council again and said she made payments to the Council in late July 2023, early September 2023, and mid-January 2024.
38. The Council responded and told Ms X that the payments she mentioned were for a different PCN.
39. Ms X made a formal complaint to the Council in early February 2024. Ms X said she received two PCN’s from the Council. Ms X said she did not refuse to pay the charges but said she could not make a lump sum payment so started to make small payments. Ms X said the Council refused to engage with her about the charges and passed the matter to enforcement agents.
40. The Council did not record this correspondence from Ms X as a complaint and passed it to its parking service team.

Analysis

41. I do not consider the Council was at fault for the way it dealt with Ms X’s PCNs. For both notices, the Council considered her informal challenge and explained its reasons as to why it would not overturn the PCN. The Council also informed Ms X in its correspondence with her about her rights to formally challenge the PCN and appeal to an Independent Adjudicator.
42. At the time the Council passed the debts onto its enforcement agents Ms X had only made two payments of £25 and £20 towards one of the PCN’s. While I acknowledge Ms X told the Council she wanted to pay but could only pay in instalments, a significant amount of time had passed where she had made no payments. The Council has also recorded the payments Ms X made to it for each PCN starting from July 2023. This includes the payments Ms X believed the Council did not record in her correspondence to it in February 2024.
43. The Council told Ms X it would not accept payment by instalments and went through the correct process by sending Ms X a NtO, Charge Certificate and obtaining a court order, before passing the debt to its enforcement agents. Therefore I have not found the Council at fault for passing the debt to its enforcement agents.
44. I have found the Council at fault for the way it dealt with Ms X’s complaint. At the time she tried to raise a formal complaint to the Council Ms X was unsure whether the Council had included payments she made and taken these off her debt. The Council said it did not register a complaint but passed the matter to its parking services. It is not clear whether Ms X received a suitable response to her concerns. The Council could have responded to Ms X’s complaint through its complaints process. This would have allowed it the chance to explain to her what payments she had made and what PCN these payments related to. Prior to this the Council had been corresponding to her separately for each PCN.
45. While this would not have changed the amount of the debt owned by Ms X, by not doing this Ms X continued to believe the Council had not accepted payments she had made.

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Agreed action

46. Within one month of my final decision, the Council agreed to carry out the following:
• Apologise to Ms X for not responding to her complaint. The Council should refer to our guidance on making an effective apology.
47. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Final decision

48. I have completed my investigation and found there was no fault by the Council in how it dealt with Ms X’s PCN’s however there was some fault in how it communicated with her. The Council agreed to the above action to remedy the injustice caused.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman