The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate Mrs B’s complaint that her car was damaged by a Council owned tree. This is because it is reasonable for Mrs B to pursue her compensation claim by taking the Council to court.
The complaint
Mrs B complains that a Council owned tree fell and damaged her car. Mrs B says the Council took a long time to deal with her claim before wrongly not accepting responsibility for the damage. Mrs B says she had to claim on her insurance which has resulted in her premium going up. Mrs B would like the Council to pay for the repairs and to maintain the trees in this location.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
The Act 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 Mrs B.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
We do not normally investigate complaints about damage to property. This is because in effect such complaints are that an organisation has been negligent. Our role is to consider complaints of administrative fault. Negligence claims are best decided by an organisation’s insurers, and if needed, the courts.
Mrs B has received the Council’s decision on her compensation claim. Mrs B may now pursue her claim by taking the Council to court. I find it is reasonable for Mrs B to do this. Only the courts can decide if the Council was negligent, and if so, make an order for damages. We cannot recommend actions or payments that ‘punish’ an organisation.
So, we will not investigate Mrs B’s complaint about the damage to her vehicle.
Because we are not investigating the substantive matter, an investigation solely into the Council’s handling of Mrs B’s claim would not be a good use of our limited resources or achieve a meaningful outcome for Mrs B.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mrs B’s complaint because it is reasonable for her to take the Council to court.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman