When the registered keeper has to pay a private parking charge
A private parking charge is owed by the driver, who accepted the car park's terms by parking. But operators usually know only the number plate, so they write to the registered keeper. Since 1 October 2012 an operator can make the keeper pay instead of the driver, but only if it follows strict rules on which notices it sends and when. The rules are in Schedule 4 of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 and apply in England and Wales.
This is different from a council Penalty Charge Notice, which the vehicle's owner has to pay whoever was driving: see registered keepers liability.
The conditions
The operator can make the keeper pay only if all of these are true:
- It does not know who was driving. It does not have both the driver's name and a current address where papers can be served on them.
- It gave the right notices at the right time (see below).
- It asked the DVLA for the keeper's details within the same time limit as the notice to keeper, and got them.
- The vehicle had not been stolen when it was parked.
The keeper is presumed to be the registered keeper on the DVLA's records, unless shown otherwise. And the rules do not create a new debt: the driver must have owed the charge in the first place, for example under clear terms on the car park's signs.
The notices and their deadlines
There are two ways an operator can do it.
After a ticket on the windscreen. A ticket fixed to the vehicle or handed to the driver before the vehicle leaves is the notice to driver. If it is not paid, the operator can send the keeper a notice to keeper, but not straight away: it must arrive between day 29 and day 56, counting from the day after the windscreen ticket.
With no windscreen ticket. Car parks run with number plate (ANPR) cameras, and other operators who did not put a ticket on the vehicle, send a notice to keeper by post. It must arrive within 14 days, counting from the day after the vehicle left.
A notice sent by post counts as arriving on the second working day after it was posted, unless shown otherwise. Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays are not working days. A notice to keeper that arrives outside its time limit cannot make the keeper liable, though the operator can still pursue the driver.
The notice to keeper must, among other things:
- say which vehicle, car park and period of parking it is about, and why the charge is due;
- say that the operator does not know the driver's name and a current address for them;
- invite the keeper to pay or, if they were not driving, to give the driver's name and a current address and pass the notice on to the driver;
- warn the keeper that they will be liable if, after 28 days, the charge has not been paid and the operator still does not know who was driving;
- give any discount for paying early and explain how to appeal.
Under the industry's code of practice, an operator must not claim the keeper is liable under these rules when they cannot be.
The 28 days and naming the driver
The operator cannot pursue the keeper until 28 days after the notice to keeper was given. In that time you can:
- pay the charge, or appeal against it; or
- if you were not driving, name the driver: give the operator the driver's name and a current address where papers can be served on them. The operator must then pursue the driver, not you.
You do not have to name the driver. The government's guidance says the rules give the keeper a choice between naming the driver and paying the charge themselves (DfT guidance, 2012). But if you do not name the driver and the operator has followed every rule, you can be made to pay as the keeper. Naming the driver after the operator has started court action against you does not end your liability.
Operators must not simply assume the keeper was driving. The industry's code says, though, that a keeper's refusal to name the driver may be treated as evidence that they were driving, unless they can show they were not.
The most a keeper can be made to pay
Under these rules, the keeper cannot be made to pay more than the amount stated in the notice to keeper, less anything paid since.
Hire and lease vehicles
If the vehicle was on hire or lease (not hire purchase), the notice to keeper goes to the hire or leasing company. The company stops being liable if, within 28 days, it sends the operator:
- a signed statement that the vehicle was hired to a named person at the time,
- a copy of the hire agreement, and
- a copy of a statement signed by the hirer accepting responsibility for parking charges.
The operator can then send the hirer a notice to hirer, and can pursue the hirer once 21 days have passed. The hirer can be made to pay no more than the amount in the notice to keeper.
Land the rules do not cover
The keeper rules apply only on what the Act calls relevant land. They do not apply on:
- public roads;
- council car parks and on-street parking places, or any other parking place provided or controlled by a council or another traffic authority: these use council Penalty Charge Notices instead;
- land where parking is already controlled by law, for example by byelaws that set a charge or penalty for parking, as at some airports and ports.
On land outside these rules, an operator cannot use them to make the keeper pay.
Since 26 December 2025, land covered by the national railway byelaws counts as relevant land (SI 2025/1256), so the keeper rules now apply in those station car parks in England and Wales.
If the operator gets it wrong
If the operator misses a deadline or leaves out something the notice must contain, it loses the right to make the keeper pay under these rules, although it can still pursue the driver. If you think that has happened, say so in your appeal and give the dates. Keep the envelope or email the notice came in.
From when the government's code comes into force, expected about 21 December 2026, every notice must say whether it relies on these rules.
The rules are the same in England and Wales. For land in Wales, the Welsh Ministers rather than the UK government have the power to change them. Keep your address up to date with the DVLA, so that notices reach you.
This page was checked against the law in England and Wales on 22 October 2026. It is general guidance, not legal advice: see the legal disclaimer.