Private parking

Laws you should know

• Private parking tickets

  What a Parking Charge Notice from a private car park operator is, how to tell it from a council Penalty Charge Notice, the most an operator can charge, and who keeps operators in check.

• Clamping and towing on private land

  Clamping, towing away or blocking in a vehicle on private land without lawful authority has been a crime in England and Wales since 1 October 2012. Who can still clamp or tow, fixed barriers, railway stations, and what to do if it happens to you.

• When the registered keeper has to pay a private parking charge

  When a private car park operator can make the registered keeper pay a parking charge run up by someone else: the rules in Schedule 4 of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012, the deadlines for the notices, naming the driver, hire cars and the land the rules leave out.

• Appealing a private parking charge

  How to appeal a Parking Charge Notice from a private car park operator: to the operator within 28 days, then to POPLA or the Independent Appeals Service, with the Appeals Charter, keeping the discount and the evidence to send.

• The government's Private Parking Code of Practice

  The government's code of practice for private car parks, laid before Parliament on 20 October 2026 and not yet in force: when it is expected to start, what it changes for drivers and what stays the same.