POFA 2012 and keeper liability: when a private firm can chase the registered keeper
Private parking firms often cannot identify the driver, so they pursue the registered keeper. The Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 sets strict rules — and missing them voids the charge.
When a private parking company issues a charge, it is charging the driver — the person who agreed to the parking "contract" by parking there. The problem for the operator is that it usually has no idea who the driver was. All it can get from the DVLA is the registered keeper. The Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 (POFA) is the law that lets it bridge that gap — but only if it follows the rules exactly. Those rules are often your strongest appeal point.
Driver vs keeper — why it matters
The keeper and the driver are not always the same person, and the law does not simply assume they are. Unless the operator complies with Schedule 4 of POFA 2012, it can pursue only the driver — and if it cannot prove who that was, it has no one to enforce against. POFA is the only route to make the keeper liable for a charge they may not have incurred.
The conditions the operator must meet
To transfer liability to the registered keeper under Schedule 4, the operator must, broadly:
- Not know the driver's name and a current address for them (keeper liability is a fallback, not a first resort).
- Serve a compliant Notice to Keeper within strict time limits (below).
- Include all the mandatory information — the vehicle, the location, the period of parking, the charge and any discount, an invitation to pay or name the driver, and a clear warning that the keeper may become liable.
Get any of this wrong and keeper liability falls away — the operator is left chasing an unidentified driver.
The time limits — the most common failure
The deadline depends on whether you got a ticket on the windscreen:
- Camera / ANPR cases (no windscreen ticket): the Notice to Keeper must be served within 14 days of the parking event. This is the rule operators most often miss — a late notice voids keeper liability entirely.
- Windscreen-ticket cases: where a notice was first left on the vehicle, the Notice to Keeper must be served within the specific statutory window that follows it.
Either way, the keeper only becomes liable 28 days after a fully compliant Notice to Keeper is given, and only if the charge is still unpaid and the driver still unidentified.
How to use POFA in an appeal
POFA non-compliance is a clean, technical win that does not depend on the rights and wrongs of the parking itself:
1. Check the dates. For an ANPR charge, was the Notice to Keeper served within 14 days? If not, say so — keeper liability is lost.
2. Check the contents. Does the notice contain every mandatory item, including the proper warning to the keeper? Omissions matter.
3. Don't volunteer the driver. You are not legally required to name the driver; if the operator has failed POFA, identifying the driver can hand them the case they otherwise lack.
This sits alongside the usual contract arguments — inadequate signage or no valid contract. If the operator both failed POFA and had poor signage, you have two independent grounds. Take a rejected appeal free to POPLA or the IAS, where the operator must prove it complied. Many cannot.
Charges from ParkingEye, Civil Enforcement and other ANPR-led operators frequently turn on exactly these POFA points.