How to fight a pay and display or parking app penalty

Parking ticketsLaw checked 25 October 2026

A penalty in a pay and display bay or car park, or where you pay by phone or app, is usually fixed to your vehicle by a civil enforcement officer. The usual ones are for overstaying your paid-for time (contravention code 05), not displaying a valid ticket (code 06) and not paying, for example by app (code 11); car parks, meter feeding and returning too soon have codes of their own. They are lower level penalties, except code 06 in Wales. It is a civil penalty: no penalty points and no criminal record. This guide explains what the council has to prove, the arguments that have won and lost at the tribunals, and how to make your challenge. The rules are on pay and display bays, and the codes and amounts on contravention codes and PCN fine amounts. For a private car park's Parking Charge Notice, see appealing a private parking charge; for other tickets, start at fight your ticket.

The rule

You may park for the time you have paid for, up to the maximum stay, on the days and at the hours shown on the signs and the machine. The details are set by the council's traffic order for the bays, so they vary.

A paper ticket must usually be displayed so that it can be read from outside, for the whole time you are parked.
Paying by phone or app. Nothing is displayed: the officer checks the payments for that location against your registration, so the location code and registration must be right. Adjudicators have treated a valid app payment as a displayed ticket (Mr B v Calderdale Borough Council, 2025).
The grace period. In England no penalty may be imposed if you stay 10 minutes or less beyond your paid-for or free time, in the street or in a council car park (regulation 5 of England's 2022 civil enforcement regulations). It does not help if you never paid. Wales has no grace period in law, although Welsh councils can choose to allow one.
Meter feeding and no return. Where the traffic order bans it, buying more time to stay on is a contravention even within the maximum stay, and where the signs give a no-return time you must not park in the same bays again until it has passed. See meter feeding and re-parking in the same bays.

What the council has to prove

The council has to prove the contravention; you do not have to disprove it. It relies on the officer's notes and photos of your vehicle, the signs and the machine and, for app payments, the officer's check for a payment for that location and registration. Government guidance to councils in England recommends that a PCN gives the times the officer started and stopped watching your vehicle.

Overstaying. The PCN must come after your paid time and the 10-minute grace period have both run out. An officer may watch your vehicle during the grace period but cannot issue the PCN until it has ended (Mr B v Calderdale, 2025).
Meter feeding or returning too soon. The council has to show that your vehicle stayed put while you paid again, or came back too soon. Officers note the times and the positions of the tyre valves, and app records show when each stay began.

Arguments that have won

You were inside the grace period

In England, compare the time your paid or free time ran out, on your ticket or app receipt, with the time on the PCN. If the PCN was issued 10 minutes or less after it, no penalty may be imposed. Government guidance tells councils that a penalty in those 10 minutes is unlawful, unless you were parked unlawfully anyway, for example because you never paid.

The machine was out of order

Government guidance tells councils in England not to issue a PCN when a meter or pay and display machine is out of order, unless another way to pay was available and clearly shown, such as another machine or paying by phone. Councils must have regard to that guidance. The Welsh Government's guidance leaves a broken machine to each council's officers to judge, for example where another machine was close by.

The traffic order matters too. In Jabri v Kensington and Chelsea (1997) a meter broke after the driver had paid and left; the order banned parking at an out-of-order meter only for someone who knew, so there was no contravention. But in Carless v Corporation of London (1997) the driver saw the meter break as he paid and left his car there anyway, and lost.

You were on your way to pay

There is no contravention while you take a reasonable time to walk to the machine, pay and display the ticket (Mayor v Camden, 1997). Where vouchers are sold in shops, that includes time to buy one: in Callaghan v Waltham Forest (2005) a driver who spent about 3 minutes in a shop getting a voucher won, and the adjudicator said the council could not expect drivers to keep vouchers in the car. It does not cover looking for change (see below).

The council's arrangements made it impossible to comply

In Williams v Hounslow (2009) the traffic order said tickets had to be fixed to the windscreen, but the machines issued tickets that did not stick and said "Display on dashboard". The ticket slid down and was partly hidden. The adjudicator held that a council must let drivers comply with its own order, and allowed the appeal. If the machine, ticket or app told you something different, ask for the traffic order.

Other points to check

A payment the officer did not see. If your receipt shows a valid session for the right location and registration when the PCN was issued, send it: the contravention did not occur.
Meter feeding and returning too soon. The parking place is usually the whole run of bays under the same restriction, so moving to the next bay is not leaving. If the officer's notes show the tyre valves in different positions, your vehicle had moved.
A late Notice to Owner. If the penalty is not paid, the council must send the Notice to Owner within 6 months of the PCN. If yours came later, say so.
Mistakes on the PCN. Check the date, time, place, vehicle registration and contravention code.

Arguments that usually fail

"I had paid, but the ticket fell over." The ticket must be on display for the whole stay: one that fell face down still meant a contravention in Carr v Corporation of London (1997), as did a valid ticket that could not be seen in Mr S v West Northamptonshire Council (2022). Send the ticket anyway and ask the council to cancel: it has discretion to, and an adjudicator can only recommend it.
"I entered the wrong location code." It is your job to enter the right details, and an adjudicator cannot cancel for a genuine mistake (Miss R v Manchester City Council, 2023). Ask the council to cancel, with your receipt.
"I typed my registration wrongly." A Scottish tribunal held that paying for a registration with one wrong digit did not pay for the car that was parked (Fife Council v Mrs M, 2024). Its decisions do not bind adjudicators in England and Wales, but the Traffic Penalty Tribunal lists this one as persuasive. Ask the council to cancel.
"I went to get change." The time to pay does not include looking for change, even for 3 minutes in a shop, and leaving a car park to get change is a contravention (Mayor v Camden, 1997, decided with three similar appeals).
"The officer didn't wait." Apart from the grace period, there is no right to a set time before a PCN is issued (Mrs K v Gateshead Council, 2023).
"I paid by app, so there was no ticket to display." A virtual payment counts as a displayed ticket, and for an app session that had run out the council could use either code 05 or code 06 (Mr B v Calderdale, 2025).

Evidence to gather

Your ticket, or the app or phone receipt, showing the location code, registration and times.
The council's evidence. Ask for the officer's photos and notes if they were not sent, including when the officer first saw your vehicle.
Photos of the machine and signs, taken safely: the machine's screen or out-of-order notice, the charging hours and maximum stay, and any other machine or pay-by-phone sign nearby, or the lack of one.
Proof of a fault, such as a screenshot of an app error, a fault report or a witness statement.
Records of where you went, if you left and came back, such as an app session elsewhere or a receipt with the time on it.
The PCN, and the date it was issued.

What to write

Keep it short and factual: what happened, which ground it fits, and what the evidence shows, one point per paragraph. Quote only decisions you have read: London's adjudicators have seen appeals citing cases that do not exist, invented by AI tools.

Examples to adapt, with your own details in place of the brackets:

My paid time ended at [time], as my [ticket / app receipt] shows, and the PCN was issued at [time], [number] minutes later. No penalty may be imposed within 10 minutes of paid time ending (regulation 5 of the Civil Enforcement of Road Traffic Contraventions (Approved Devices, Charging Guidelines and General Provisions) (England) Regulations 2022).

The machine at [place] was out of order when I parked at [time], as my photos show, and there was no other machine or pay-by-phone sign nearby. Government guidance says no PCN should be issued in these circumstances.

I bought a ticket at [time], valid until [time] (attached), and displayed it, but it [fell face down] before the officer arrived. I ask the council to cancel the penalty.

I paid by app at [time] for [length of stay] but entered [the wrong registration / location code] by mistake, as the attached receipt shows. I had paid to park here, and I ask the council to cancel the penalty.

Next steps and your chances

Challenge it with the council first. For a PCN fixed to your vehicle, write within 14 days if you can, while many councils keep the discount open. If the council says no, make formal representations within 28 days of the Notice to Owner, then appeal within 28 days of a rejection: to London Tribunals for a London PCN, or to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal for England outside London and Wales. Appealing against a PCN explains the discount and every time limit.
The grounds. Parking PCNs have the same legal grounds everywhere, London included. Most of the arguments above come under "the contravention did not occur", and a council that broke the rules under "procedural impropriety". You can also ask the council to cancel for compelling reasons, and an adjudicator who refuses your appeal can recommend that it does. See reasons for challenging a PCN.
Your chances. In London in 2024-25, 49% of the parking appeals decided were allowed (London Tribunals annual report). Adjudicators treat earlier decisions as persuasive, not binding, so make your case on your own facts.

The London decisions quoted here are on London Tribunals' key cases page, and the Traffic Penalty Tribunal's, with the Scottish one, on its Traff-iCase site.

This page was checked against the law in England and Wales on 25 October 2026. It is general guidance, not legal advice: see the legal disclaimer.