Parking Charge Notice and keeper liability
Checked 17 July 2026 · How we check our figures
What it is
A Parking Charge Notice from a private operator is a demand under contract law, an invoice for breaking the terms on the sign, issued by a company rather than any authority. Drivers call it a private parking fine, and both words mislead: it is not a fine, and the operator reaches unpaid money only through a county court claim, because contract gives it no enforcement machinery of its own. The quiet architecture is Schedule 4 of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012: it lets the operator pursue the keeper where the driver stays unknown, but only inside strict service windows, and it caps the keeper's liability under the Schedule at the sum named in the notice to keeper, para 4(5).
Reading the notice
The addressee line sorts the regime: a notice to keeper in a camera-only case must be delivered within 14 days of the parking, Sch 4 para 9; one following a windscreen ticket must come no earlier than 28 and no later than 56 days after it, para 8; a missed window ends keeper liability, though the driver, if identified, remains pursuable.
The amount line is a ceiling, not a floor: whatever later letters add for recovery, the keeper's liability under the Schedule stops at the sum specified in the notice to keeper, less anything paid, para 4(5).
The appeal lines name a ladder, first the operator, then the independent appeals service of its trade association; operators obtain keeper details from the DVLA through accredited trade association membership (gov.uk).
The decision in front of you
Pay in the discount window the notice itself offers and the matter closes; the amounts are the operator's to set within its code, and the Supreme Court upheld a charge of 85 pounds as neither penal nor unfair, ParkingEye v Beavis [2015] UKSC 67.
Appeal, first to the operator and then free to the independent service its association runs: the notice states how its own clocks pause during the appeal, and a rejection returns the choice to pay or to wait for the operator's next move.
Name the driver if you are the keeper and were not driving: keeper liability rests on the driver staying unknown to the operator, Sch 4 para 5, and a named driver takes the claim with them.
Ignoring the private one is a bet on the operator's appetite: no points attach and nothing registers by itself, but a county court claim can come at any point within six years, s. 5 Limitation Act 1980, and a lost claim turns the invoice into a judgment.
What happens next
A claim form, if it comes, runs on the county court's clocks stated in the pack, with 14 days from service to respond (gov.uk guidance on county court money claims); the Beavis framework, signage and the Schedule 4 windows are where defences live.
A judgment entered and paid in full within one month is removed from the register; unpaid, it stays visible for six years (gov.uk, checked 2026-07-16).
Sorting this notice against the council's and the constable's versions, including why points do not attach here, is the three-tickets comparison in its own guide.
The numbers
The keeper ceiling: the amount specified in the notice to keeper, less payments received, Sch 4 para 4(5) Protection of Freedoms Act 2012.
The Beavis benchmark: 85 pounds upheld by the Supreme Court, ParkingEye v Beavis [2015] UKSC 67.
Judgment register: entries last six years, and full payment within one month removes the entry (gov.uk, checked 2026-07-16).
The deadlines
Camera-only cases: the notice to keeper must be delivered within 14 days of the parking, Sch 4 para 9 Protection of Freedoms Act 2012.
Windscreen cases: the notice to keeper must arrive between 28 and 56 days after the windscreen notice, Sch 4 para 8; the operator may pursue the keeper only after 28 days from the notice to keeper, para 4.
The operator's claim window is six years, s. 5 Limitation Act 1980; the one-month payment rule after any judgment is the register's own clock (gov.uk).
What people get wrong
Inheriting the family wisdom that private tickets can be ignored: the claim route is real, open for six years, and the judgment register carries no parking footnote.
Reading debt-letter totals as owed: under the Schedule the keeper's exposure ends at the notice to keeper's figure, para 4(5), whatever the letterhead adds.
Staying silent as keeper when the driver could be named: the Schedule's whole lever is the driver's anonymity, para 5, and silence keeps the claim pointed at you.
Authority
Schedule 4 Protection of Freedoms Act 2012, paras 4, 5, 8 and 9; ParkingEye Ltd v Beavis [2015] UKSC 67; s. 5 Limitation Act 1980; gov.uk