The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about damage from a pothole in the road. This is because the complaint is better dealt with by insurers and the court.
The complaint
Mr Y complains the Council has failed to accept his claim for damage to his car after he drove into a pothole. He says he has submitted information, but this has been lost and now the Council has asked him to resubmit the information.
Mr Y says the cost of repairs amounted to approximately £60 and has caused him inconvenience. He also says he does not feel it is worth the time for him to complete the forms again for such a small claim.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
The Ombudsman investigates 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 may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide: there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or there is another body better placed to consider this complaint. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6)) It is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaints about complaint procedures, if we are unable to deal with the substantive issue.
How I considered this complaint
I considered information Mr Y provided and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Mr Y drove into a pothole in the Council’s area in February 2022. He wrote to the Council to make a claim for the damage to his vehicle, which had cost £60 to repair. The Council asked Mr Y to complete a claim form with information about the claim and the incident itself. Mr Y says the Council has told him it has not received this information and has asked him to complete the form and provide the information again. Mr Y says he has tried to contact the Council by telephone about his claim but has not received a response. Mr Y then complained to us in May 2022.
Analysis Mr Y’s injustice largely relates to the damage to his vehicle. Any claim for damages, such as costs for repairs, which Mr Y considers the Council to be responsible for, are matters more appropriately dealt with by the courts. This is because we cannot decide liability or award damages, where the court can. It is therefore reasonable for Mr Y to pursue his claim through either the insurer or the courts.
Mr Y may not want to complete the claim form and provide information again, this is his choice. However, without this information the Council cannot assess whether it considers itself liable for the cost of the repairs. As it cannot therefore consider the claim, it is unlikely we would find the Council at fault for requesting such information be provided again where it says it has not received it previously. For these reasons, we will not investigate this complaint.
As we are not considering the substantive issue, it is not a good use of public money for us to investigate how the Council has handled Mr Y’s complaint. Consequently, we will not investigate.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr Y’s complaint because the complaint is better dealt with by insurers and the court.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman