Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s escalation of a Penalty Charge Notice to enforcement agents. It would be reasonable for Mr X to apply to the Traffic Enforcement Centre to take the process back to an earlier stage.

The complaint

1. Mr X received a Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) in January 2024. He made representations against the PCN but did not receive a response.
2. Mr X is unhappy the Council escalated the case and complains about the conduct of its enforcement agents who have visited his property demanding payment and threatened to come back and remove his belongings.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
4. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
5. 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)
6. The Traffic Enforcement Centre (TEC) is part of Northampton County Court. It considers applications from local authorities to pursue payment of unpaid PCNs and from motorists to challenge local authorities’ pursuit of unpaid PCNs.

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How I considered this complaint

7. I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council.
8. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

9. When Mr X received the PCN he made representations against it to the Council. The Council rejected Mr X’s representations in March 2024, but Mr X did not receive the rejection.
10. Because Mr X did not pay the PCN or appeal against it, the Council issued a charge certificate in April 2024. Mr X was aware of this at the time and responded saying he had not received the Councils rejection letter.
11. In June 2024, the Council replied to Mr X stating that because it had issued a charge certificate, it would not consider further representations. It provided Mr X an opportunity to settle the PCN and advised that if he did not pay, it would register the unpaid PCN as a debt.
12. The Council also explained that once it did this, he may apply to the TEC to make a witness statement/statutory declaration on the grounds he made representations against the PCN but did not receive a response.
13. The Council has now registered the unpaid PCN with the TEC and passed the case to enforcement agents to recover payment from Mr X. Mr X complains about the conduct of the Council’s enforcement agents but the actions he refers to are part of the usual recovery process and unlikely to amount to fault.
14. The issue effecting Mr X is the escalation of the case without him having received a response to his representations. Mr X was aware of this issue by June 2024, but he did not complain to us about it within 12 months. Any complaint about the issue is therefore late and the exclusion at Paragraph 4 applies. In any event, the TEC provides a suitable alternative remedy for the issue which it would be reasonable for Mr X to use. Mr X is now outside the usual time limit to file a witness statement/statutory declaration but he may make a late application to the TEC giving the reasons why he did not apply sooner. The TEC will then decide whether to accept his application and if Mr X is not happy with its decision, he may request a review.

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Final decision

15. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because it would be reasonable for him to take the matter to the TEC.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman