The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate the complainant’s concerns about the way the Council responded to his complaint regarding a potentially an abandoned vehicle. This is because the complaint does not meet the tests in our Assessment Code on how we decide which complaints to investigate. It is reasonable to expect the complainant to have contacted us sooner about events in 2021, there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council, and we will not consider its complaint handling in isolation.
The complaint
The complainant, whom I refer to as Mr X, complained to the Council about its response to his reports of an abandoned vehicle on a road near his house. He complained he had been given misinformation and false promises, and had been refused an explanation as to why those promises were made.
Mr X says the Council completely changed his complaint, and did not answer the questions/requests he had made.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
The Ombudsman can 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 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, or any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6)) And 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) Finally, 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 provided by Mr X and our Assessment Code.
Background summary Between March and May 2021, Mr X corresponded with the Council about a potentially abandoned vehicle on a road near his house. The Council explained the factors that are considered when deciding if a vehicle is abandoned. As the vehicle in question was still taxed, insured, and had an owner, it would not be regarded as abandoned, so it could not take any action at that time. Once the tax and insurance had expired, it said it would revisit the case, investigate, and take appropriate steps to potentially remove as abandoned if necessary. The Council also said Mr X should contact the Police if the vehicle had no MOT, or the DVLA if it was untaxed.
Mr X contacted the Council again in August 2022, as the vehicle was still parked in the same place, the MOT had expired, and it had been registered as taken off the road. The Council explained it would still not be regarded as abandoned as the vehicle had an owner.
Mr X complained to the Council, as he felt it had given misinformation about the various enforcing authorities, and false promises about when the Council would take action.
My assessment
The 12-month time restriction (detailed in paragraph 4) would apply to the parts of the complaint about the information given to Mr X in 2021 regarding which authorities were responsible for enforcing MOT, tax, and abandoned vehicle issues. Mr X did not contact the Ombudsman until October 2022. I consider it reasonable to expect him to have contacted us sooner, so the Ombudsman will not investigate any concerns about these earlier events.
And even if this time restriction did not apply, there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council to warrant the Ombudsman pursuing the complaint further. The Council has correctly explained which authorities have the power to enforce where a vehicle has no MOT, tax or is abandoned. And, when Mr X informed the Council in August 2022 that the vehicle’s tax and MOT had now expired, the Council reconsidered the situation and explained why it could still not take any action.
As the Ombudsman will not investigate the substantive issues that Mr X had contacted the Council about, we will not usually use public resources to consider his associated concerns about the Council’s complaint handling in isolation.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because it is reasonable to expect him to have contacted us sooner about the information provided by the Council in 2021, there is not enough evidence of fault, and we will not consider the Council’s complaints process in isolation.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman