The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s handling of Mr X’s claim for compensation for damage caused by a pothole as there is insufficient evidence of significant fault caused by any Council delay. We also can achieve no meaningful outcome for Mr X as ultimately this is a matter for the courts.
The complaint
Mr X complains about delay in the Council responding to his claim for compensation for pothole damage to his vehicle. Mr X says this has made him feel disrespected.
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 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 any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or we cannot achieve a meaningful outcome for the complainant (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B)) 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)
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
I recognise that Mr X is unhappy as he says there was delay in the Council responding but the information Mr X provided to us indicates when the Council did respond, it told Mr X it could not progress the matter as he had not provided sufficient information about the exact location of the pothole. As such, I do not consider that if there was Council delay, this caused a significant injustice to Mr X.
Additionally, we cannot determine if the Council is liable to pay Mr X compensation as this can only be decided in court. We can achieve no meaningful outcome therefore for Mr X.
For these reasons, we will not investigate.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because the alleged Council fault did not cause him significant injustice and we can achieve no meaningful outcome by investigating.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman