Is Your Notice to Keeper
POFA Compliant?
Serving the notice on time is only half of what Schedule 4 demands. It also prescribes what the notice must say. Take your Notice to Keeper out and work down this list - each “no” is a potential ground of appeal.
- 1Does the notice specify the period of parking?
A period means an entry time and an exit time, or a stated duration. A single timestamp is not a period.
- 2Does it state the amount of the charge that remains unpaid?
Look for a clear figure. Multiple inconsistent amounts on the same notice is itself a problem.
- 3Does it invite you to pay OR to name the driver?
It must offer the naming route, not simply demand payment from you.
- 4Does it warn that the operator may recover the charge from you as keeper?
Specific words are not prescribed, but the warning itself must be there.
- 5Does it name the creditor and give an address for service?
The creditor is who is owed the money - often, but not always, the operator whose logo is on the letter.
- 6Does it state the date it was sent or given?
A date printed on the letter, not just a postmark on the envelope.
- 7Does it correctly identify the vehicle?
Check the registration mark character by character, and the make of vehicle if stated.
- 8Does it tell you how to appeal to an independent body?
POPLA for British Parking Association members, the IAS for International Parking Community members.
Why the wording matters as much as the deadline
Parliament did not simply hand parking operators the right to bill the registered keeper. Schedule 4 grants that right conditionally, and the conditions are cumulative: the notice must arrive in time and contain everything the statute prescribes and relate to land the Act actually covers. Fail any one of them and the keeper-liability route closes.
In practice these notices are produced in bulk from templates, and a template that omits a required element omits it from every notice the operator sends. That is why a careful read of the paperwork is worth more than an emotive explanation of why you were parked there - and why we never name the driver, which would discard the whole argument.
If the wording checks out, run the dates through the deadline calculator, and if your charge came from a railway station car park read what changed there in December 2025 - these notices now have to pass the same checks, and many were never written to.
AppealPilot is not a law firm and this checker is not legal advice. It is a guide to the Schedule 4 requirements as they are generally applied.
Notice to Keeper checker FAQ
Prescribed information is the list of things Schedule 4 of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 requires a Notice to Keeper to contain - the vehicle, the period of parking, the amount unpaid, an invitation to pay or name the driver, a keeper-liability warning, the creditor's name and address, and the date of service. A notice missing any of them is arguably defective regardless of how quickly it arrived.
No. A defect means the operator cannot rely on keeper liability, so they cannot lawfully make you pay as the registered keeper. The point has to be raised properly with the operator, and if necessary at independent appeal. Nothing happens automatically just because a defect exists.
No. Council Penalty Charge Notices are issued under separate traffic legislation with their own statutory appeals process. Schedule 4 and this checklist apply to private parking charges on private land only.
Mark them 'Not sure' and upload the notice when you start an appeal. Reading these notices against the statutory requirements is the part we do, and the ambiguous items are usually where the strongest arguments turn out to be.
Related parking appeal guides
The other half of the test. Check whether your notice was served inside the 14-day or 28-56 day limit.
The full plain-English guide to Schedule 4, keeper liability, and the land where none of it applies.
What a private parking charge actually is, what happens if you ignore it, and when it is worth appealing.
We put the argument to the operator properly. £10 flat fee, money back if a covered appeal is unsuccessful.