Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about a penalty charge notice. This is because Mr X was not liable for the penalty charge notice and his injustice stems from his agreement with the registered keeper of the vehicle, rather than any action or fault by the Council.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains about a penalty charge notice (PCN) issued by the Council. He challenged the PCN and provided evidence in support of his challenge but is unhappy the Council has refused to cancel the PCN.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse effect 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 an investigation if we decide the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by Mr X and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

4. The Council issued Mr X a PCN for parking in an electric vehicle charging bay while his car was not charging. Mr X accepts his car was not charging but says this was not his fault; he claims the charger was faulty and that he had plugged his car in and was trying to charge it prior to the issue of the PCN.
5. The Council rejected Mr X’s challenge to the PCN and set out Mr X’s options, which were to pay the PCN or wait for the next stage of the process to challenge it further. But Mr X is not the registered keeper of the vehicle so he is not liable for any PCNs issued in respect of it; liability rests with the registered keeper.
6. Because Mr X did not pay the penalty charge the Council issued the ‘notice to owner’, which provides the opportunity to make formal representations and appeal to London Tribunals, to the registered keeper. The registered keeper did not challenge the PCN and did not apply to transfer liability to Mr X. Instead they paid the PCN and recovered their costs from Mr X under the terms of their contract for the car.
7. Mr X’s injustice stems from the actions taken by the registered keeper to recover their costs for paying the PCN. It is not the direct result of any actions by the Council, whether fault or not. The Council has no involvement in the contract between Mr X and the Council and has not held Mr X liable for the PCN.
8. We are not an appeal body. This means we do not take a second look at a decision to decide if it was wrong. Instead, we look at the processes an organisation followed to make its decision. If we consider it followed those processes correctly we cannot question whether the decision was right or wrong.
9. Had Mr X wished to challenge the PCN the appropriate way to do this would have been through the appeals process. Mr X should therefore have asked the registered keeper to transfer liability to him so that he could appeal to London Tribunals, or he could have asked to challenge the PCN on the registered keeper’s behalf. But this did not happen; the registered keeper paid the penalty charge and their right of appeal against the PCN lapsed.
10. Although Mr X is not the registered keeper the Council considered his informal challenge and gave its reasons for not cancelling the PCN. It then considered the further information Mr X provided in his complaint, which he made with the consent of the registered keeper, but again explained the reasons it would not cancel the PCN. It is not for us to say whether we might have made a different decision on the facts as the Council properly considered the evidence Mr X provided. It is therefore unlikely we would find fault even if we could investigate the complaint.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because Mr X’s injustice stems from his agreement with the registered keeper rather than any action or fault by the Council.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman