Leased Vehicle: Notice Not Served on You (the Hirer) in Time

If your vehicle is leased or hired, a private parking operator can only transfer the charge to you as hirer by following strict deadlines in the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012, Schedule 4. The notice to keeper must reach the lease company in time (within 14 days of the parking for camera/ANPR tickets), and once the lease company passes your hire details to the operator, the operator must serve YOU a notice — together with copies of the hire documents and the original notice to keeper — within 21 days. If you only heard about the charge weeks late, one of these deadlines has often been missed, which defeats the operator's right to recover from you as the hirer. Note: this applies to private parking charges in England and Wales; council PCNs follow different rules. It defeats keeper/hirer liability only — do not identify who was driving.

Legal basis

Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 (PoFA), Schedule 4, paras 13-14 — notice to hirer (with copies of the para 13(2) hire documents and the notice to keeper) must be served within 21 days beginning the day after the creditor receives the hire documents (para 14(2)(a)); the notice to keeper itself must be given within the para 8/9 windows (14 days for ANPR tickets, para 9(4)-(5))

Sample appeal wording

Before you send this

Deadline. A late submission can be rejected without your argument being read. Check your notice for the deadline and how it is counted.
Paying may end it. Paying can count as accepting the notice and can close a challenge already under way. Part-paying or acknowledging an old debt can also revive a time limit that had expired.
The amount can change. Check what happens to the sum if you challenge — it may be held, re-offered lower, or keep rising, and fees or enforcement can continue meanwhile.
Use the official route. Use the method, recipient and form your notice specifies, with any reference, evidence and signature it asks for. Sent elsewhere, it may not count.
Only say what is true. Do not copy any statement of fact unless it is true for you, and check the legal point still applies. Delete what does not fit. It may be treated as your statement.
Careful what you volunteer. Avoid unnecessary admissions — naming the driver or accepting responsibility can remove arguments. But answer anything you are legally required to answer, and do include the evidence your ground needs.
Keep the record. Keep what you sent, the attachments, any receipt, and the reply. Note the next deadline.

Sample wording to adapt and send yourself — it may not fit your notice or the stage you are at.

The Notice to Keeper was not forwarded to the driver within the statutory 14-day window prescribed by the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012. The lease company's failure to notify the driver in time vitiates keeper liability under Schedule 4.

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Leased Vehicle: Notice Not Served on You (the Hirer) in Time

Legal basis

Sample appeal wording

Beat It writes this argument automatically

Related appeal grounds

Next steps