Keeper-only appeal · no driver named

Challenge Your ParkingEye
Parking Charge Notice

ParkingEye runs ANPR camera enforcement at retail parks, supermarkets, leisure sites and motorway services across the UK - among the highest-volume issuers of private parking charges in the country. High volume means templated notices, and templated notices are exactly where Schedule 4 errors turn up. We check yours and appeal for £10 on a best-effort basis.

£10 flat fee · money back on covered operators

Looking for the ParkingEye payment page? Read this first

Most people search for the payment portal before they have checked whether they owe the charge at all. Paying settles the matter and ends any right to challenge it - so on a defective notice, the discounted amount is not a saving. It is money you never owed.

Paying now means
  • · The matter is closed immediately
  • · You cannot later challenge the charge
  • · No refund if the notice turns out to be defective
Appealing it yourself
  • · Free, and the two checkers below do the legal analysis for you
  • · You draft and submit the appeal letter yourself
  • · Worth doing if you have the time and want to word it yourself
Checking first costs you two minutes

The right to appeal does not expire with the discount window. A defective notice is defective whether you spotted it on day 3 or day 30.

In plain English

A ParkingEye charge is an invoice, not a fine. Because their cameras read your plate rather than a ticket landing on your windscreen, they have to trace the registered keeper through the DVLA and post a Notice to Keeper - and the law gives them only 14 days from the day after the parking event to do it.

High-volume printing and postal runs are exactly where that deadline gets missed. When it is, they cannot lawfully make you, the registered keeper, pay at all.

Where ParkingEye notices go wrong

These are the grounds we check on every ParkingEye charge before submitting anything.

The 14-day ANPR deadline

Under paragraph 8 of Schedule 4 of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012, a posted notice must be given within 14 days of the parking event, and counts as given on the second working day after posting. A notice printed and posted at scale on day 12 or 13 frequently lands too late.

Entry-to-exit timing versus actual parking

ANPR records when the vehicle crossed the site boundary, not when it parked. Queueing, circling for a space, or waiting to exit is not parking time, and the notice must specify the period of parking the charge relates to.

Signage that never formed a contract

The terms have to be clearly displayed and readable from the driver's seat before parking. Faded, obstructed, or inconsistent signage across a large retail site is a genuine ground.

Grace periods too short to be lawful

The BPA Code of Practice requires a reasonable period to read the signs and decide whether to stay, and a separate period to leave once the paid time ends. A grace period that is effectively zero is itself a defect.

Prescribed information missing

Schedule 4 sets out what the notice must contain: the period of parking, the amount and grounds, the invitation to name the driver, the keeper-liability warning, and the creditor's identity. A high-volume template that misses one omits it on every notice it produced.

Payment or permit not recognised

Where a ticket was bought, a permit displayed, or a loyalty-scheme parking benefit applied and the charge issued anyway, the operator's own records will often confirm it once challenged.

Full text of the deadline rule: Schedule 4, Protection of Freedoms Act 2012.

How we handle your ParkingEye appeal

1
Submit your details

Fill in the short form and upload your charge notice and any correspondence.

2
We check the ANPR timing and wording

We run the Schedule 4 timing test against the notice date and read it against the prescribed-information requirements.

3
Appeal submitted

We draft and submit a keeper-only appeal through ParkingEye's own appeals route.

4
Email updates

We tell you when a decision arrives and advise on POPLA if the appeal is rejected.

If ParkingEye Rejects Your Appeal: POPLA

ParkingEye is a member of the British Parking Association (BPA), so a rejected appeal comes with a free right of escalation to POPLA - the independent Parking on Private Land Appeals service.

Who decides

An independent adjudicator, not the operator and not the trade body. POPLA has no financial interest in the outcome.

What it costs

Nothing to escalate within the standard window, and the charge is paused while the appeal is with them.

Where it fits

We handle the operator-stage appeal first. A rejection that should not have happened is exactly what the independent stage exists for.

ParkingEye appeal FAQ

Is ParkingEye a real fine?

No. ParkingEye is a private company enforcing its own terms on land it manages, not a council or the police. What arrives is an invoice for an alleged breach of those terms, pursued through the civil courts if unpaid - not a criminal penalty, and it carries no points or criminal record.

Do I have to name the driver for ParkingEye?

No. As the registered keeper you are under no obligation to identify who was driving. We submit keeper-only appeals, which is exactly the argument Schedule 4 of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 exists to allow.

How long does ParkingEye have to send the Notice to Keeper?

Where no ticket was placed on the windscreen - the case for nearly every ParkingEye ANPR site - the notice must be given within 14 days of the day after the parking event. Miss that and keeper liability is broken outright.

ParkingEye rejected my appeal. What now?

ParkingEye is a British Parking Association member, so a rejection comes with a POPLA code for a free, independent second appeal. We advise on this stage as part of the fee.

I overstayed by a few minutes at a retail park. Is that worth appealing?

Often, yes - but rarely on the overstay itself. A short overstay is worth challenging on notice timing or signage grounds, which decide most ParkingEye cases regardless of how long you were actually there.

Last reviewed: 3 September 2026
Ready to challenge your ParkingEye charge?

£10 flat fee. Best-effort route on this operator - full coverage details before you pay.