Private parking
Notice to Keeper: did it arrive in time?
Independent site, not a council, operator or appeals service. You pay or appeal only through the channel printed on your notice.
Tell the checker whether a ticket was left on the car, the day of parking or of that ticket, and the day the letter arrived: it shows whether the window was met.
Did the Notice to Keeper arrive in time?
Keeper liability possible?
Yes, in time
| Window opens | 2 October 2026 |
| Window closes | 15 October 2026 |
England and Wales only. A posted notice is presumed delivered on the second working day after posting unless you can show otherwise.
A Notice to Keeper is the letter a private parking company sends to the registered keeper of a vehicle, using DVLA records, when it wants the keeper to pay a parking charge that the driver has not paid. Schedule 4 to the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 is the only law that lets a company pass liability from an unknown driver to the keeper, and it attaches strict conditions. The notice must contain set information and must be delivered inside a fixed window. Where a ticket was first left on the windscreen, the window runs from day 29 to day 56 after that ticket. Where nothing was left on the car and a camera recorded the stay, the notice must arrive within 14 days beginning with the day after the parking ended. A letter sent by post is presumed delivered on the second working day after posting. If the window is missed, the keeper cannot be made liable under the Schedule by that notice, although the company can still pursue whoever was driving. Schedule 4 applies in England and Wales only.
Presumed delivery of a posted notice
Presumed delivered
13 October 2026
| Rule | second working day after posting |
| Days not counted | weekends and bank holidays in England and Wales |
Rules, amounts and dates read by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · Method
Two windows, depending on what happened at the car
Schedule 4 treats two situations differently. When an attendant left a notice to driver on the windscreen, the company first has to give the driver time to pay: the notice to keeper may only be delivered from day 29 to day 56 after the windscreen ticket, the second block of 28 days counted from the day after it (paragraph 8(5)). When the parking was recorded by a camera and nothing was left on the car, the notice is the first contact and must be delivered within 14 days beginning with the day after the parking ended (paragraph 9(5)).
| Situation | Earliest delivery | Latest delivery | Worked example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Windscreen ticket first | day 29 | day 56 | ticket on 1 October 2026: 30 October 2026 to 26 November 2026 |
| Camera only, no windscreen ticket | day after parking | 14 days later | parked 6 November 2026: by 20 November 2026 |
Presumed delivery: the second working day
Most notices come by post, and the Schedule presumes that a posted letter is delivered on the second working day after the day it was posted. A working day excludes weekends and the bank holidays of England and Wales, taken here from the GOV.UK bank holiday list. In the example above, a letter posted on 18 November 2026 is presumed delivered on 20 November 2026, inside the window that closes on 20 November 2026. A letter posted a day or two later around a weekend can slip outside it. The mini-tool under the summary turns any posting date into the presumed delivery date.
The presumption works both ways: if the letter actually arrived later than the presumed date, the real date of delivery counts, but you would need to show it. A dated photograph of the envelope on arrival, or a note of the date written at the time, helps.
What a valid notice must also contain
Timing is only one condition. Paragraphs 8(2) and 9(2) list what the notice must say: among other items, the single period of parking it relates to, an invitation to pay or to name the driver, and the arrangements for disputes or complaints, including any independent appeal. Read your notice against the text of the Schedule rather than against a summary. When a notice is missing one of these elements, the keeper liability route fails in the same way as a late delivery. The government Code adds that an operator must not presume the keeper was the driver, and that a notice not issued under Schedule 4 must not refer to it (Private Parking Code, clause 8.1).
What the keeper can do
- Pay at the rate shown on the notice. Under the Code, at least 40% off applies within 14 days of the date of issue.
- Name the driver, with a current address for service, if someone else was driving. Liability then moves to that person.
- Appeal within 28 days of delivery, stating, for example, that the notice was late or incomplete. The keeper has no duty to say who was driving. Our appeal letter builder has a reason for each of these cases.
If the camera route applies to you, the ANPR page goes through the camera evidence; if you were not the driver, see the page on the keeper who was not driving.