The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint that she was prevented from paying a penalty charge notice at the discounted rate of £65. This is because the complaint is late and the fault Ms X alleges did not cause the injustice she claims.
The complaint
The complainant, Ms X, complains that due to a glitch with the Council’s website she could not pay a penalty charge notice (PCN) at the discounted rate of £65. The Council has escalated the case and passed the matter to enforcement agents (bailiffs) to recover payment, with the current debt now more than £200.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
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 may decide not to start an investigation if the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended) The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
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)
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by Ms X and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
I shared my draft decision with Ms X and invited her comments.
My assessment
Ms X has provided a copy of her letter to the Council dated 10 June 2021 in which she says she was unable to pay the PCN at the discounted rate. However Ms X did not make an official complaint to the Council about the issue until 8 August 2022 and only complained to us on 16 August 2022. Her complaint is therefore late and I have seen no good reasons to exercise our discretion to investigate it.
It is also worth noting that Ms X may have contacted the Council by telephone to make payment when it was clear she could not make the payment online, but there is no suggestion she did. Further, the Council confirms that in response to her correspondence it offered her a further opportunity to pay the PCN at the discounted rate of £65 in February 2022, but she did not. Even if we could show there was an issue with the Council’s website in June 2021 it is therefore unlikely we could say it prevented Ms X from paying at the discounted rate and directly caused the increase in the amount.
Final decision
We will not investigate this complaint. This is because the complaint is late and it is unlikely we could say Ms X was prevented from making payment at the discounted rate as a result of any fault by the Council.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman