Summary: We will not investigate this complaint that the Council misled the complainant about the date a penalty charge notice was to be paid. This is because it is unlikely we will find fault by the Council or fault causing the complainant a level of injustice that would warrant our further involvement.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains she was given conflicting information about how long she had to pay off a parking penalty charge notice (PCN) until the charge increased. Ms X complains the Council’s website said the charge would ‘increase very soon’ and its letter about the deadline gave a date one day prior to the date she had been given by London Tribunals (LT) after it had refused her appeal against the PCN. Ms X says she was caused stress and wasted time.

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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 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 continue an investigation if we decide there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating; or any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B)).

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by the complainant.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. We will not investigate this complaint as Ms X was able to pay the PCN before the charge escalated and therefore any fault by the Council did not cause her a level of injustice that would warrant our further involvement. In addition, the Council advised Ms X after the tribunal that she had until the date given by LT to pay it, before the charge escalated. The Council also explained why its website was saying the PCN would ‘increase very soon’ and that it would not update until the next stage was triggered. As such, it seems unlikely we would find fault by the Council, in any case, if we investigated this further.
6. For these reasons, we will not investigate.

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Final decision

7. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault or fault causing her an injustice to a degree that would justify our further involvement.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman