Pay Machine Broken / No Alternative Payment

If the payment machine was broken and no alternative payment method was available, drivers cannot be penalised for failing to pay when payment was impossible.

Legal basis

Contract law - impossibility of performance. Private Parking Code of Practice requirements for payment options.

How to identify this in your case

Photograph broken machine, error messages, or out of order signs. Note time and date. Check if alternative payment (app, phone) was advertised.

Sample appeal wording

Before you send this

Deadline. A late submission can be turned down 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. Replace the bracketed prompts with your own details; leave any case citation as it is.

When I attempted to pay for parking on [DATE] at approximately [TIME], the payment machine displayed [ERROR MESSAGE/was not functioning]. I attach photographic evidence. I attempted to [DESCRIBE EFFORTS TO PAY]. There was no alternative payment method available/the alternative required technology I do not possess. I cannot be penalised for failing to perform an impossible act. I had every intention of paying and was prevented from doing so by the operator's equipment failure.

Beat It writes this argument automatically

Scan your PCN — our AI checks if this ground applies to your specific ticket and drafts an appeal letter. You check it and tap send: we send it in your name where the council takes email, or through the council’s own website where we can; otherwise we guide you through their own online form so you press submit, or give you a letter to post. The win fee is only charged if you win.

Scan my ticket

Sources

Private Parking Sector Single Code of Practice v1.1 (BPA/IPC), in force 17 February 2025
Private Parking Sector Single Code of Practice v1.1 (BPA/IPC), in force 17 February 2025 — published PDF:
https://www.britishparking.co.uk/write/Documents/AOS/Sector%20Code%20Templates/sectorsingleCodeofPracticeVersion1.1130225.pdf