Parking glossary

Plain-English definitions of the terms that come up when you fight a private parking charge — from POPLA and POFA to keeper liability and ANPR. Not legal advice; general information to help you get your bearings.

Private parking charge (PCN): An invoice issued by a private parking company for an alleged breach of the parking terms on private land. Despite often being styled a "Parking Charge Notice", it is a civil breach-of-contract claim — not a fine and not a criminal matter. It is enforced through the county court, not by bailiffs, unless a court judgment is obtained first.
Penalty Charge Notice (council PCN): A statutory penalty issued by a local authority or Transport for London for a parking or traffic contravention on public land. It follows a separate, legally defined appeals process (to the council, then a statutory tribunal) and is not what Revenger deals with — Revenger is for private parking charges.
Registered keeper: The person recorded by the DVLA as responsible for a vehicle. The keeper is not necessarily the driver, and the distinction matters: you challenge a private parking charge as the keeper.
Driver vs keeper: A charge is issued against a vehicle, and the operator usually does not know who was driving. You respond as the registered keeper. Naming or admitting who was driving can hand the operator the one fact it needs, so keeper-only responses are the safer approach.
Keeper liability: The ability of an operator to hold the registered keeper responsible for an unpaid charge when the driver is unknown. It exists only if the operator follows the strict notice requirements of POFA 2012, Schedule 4 — get the timing or content wrong and keeper liability can fall away.
POFA (Protection of Freedoms Act 2012, Schedule 4): The legislation that lets a private parking operator pursue the registered keeper for an unpaid charge — but only if it complies with detailed conditions about what its Notice to Keeper says and when it is sent. Non-compliance is a common and powerful ground of challenge.
Notice to Keeper (NtK): The formal notice a private parking operator sends to the registered keeper to try to establish keeper liability. Under POFA it must contain specific wording and be delivered within set time windows; errors can defeat the operator's claim against the keeper.
ANPR: Automatic Number Plate Recognition — cameras that read and time-stamp number plates entering and leaving a car park. The accuracy and completeness of ANPR reads (including double-entry errors and the times recorded) are frequently open to challenge.
Grace period: A minimum period a driver must be allowed to read the signage and decide whether to stay, plus time to leave after parking ends, under the industry codes of practice. A charge issued within a grace period may be challengeable.
Signage: The signs that set out the parking terms. To form a contract, the terms must be clearly and prominently displayed. Signage that hides the charge, is unlit at night, or is not visible from the parking space is a common weakness.
POPLA (Parking on Private Land Appeals): The independent appeals service for parking charges issued by members of the British Parking Association (BPA). If a BPA operator rejects your first appeal, it must issue a POPLA verification code so you can appeal free of charge to POPLA within 28 days.
IAS (Independent Appeals Service): The appeals service for parking charges issued by members of the International Parking Community (IPC). It is the IPC equivalent of POPLA; its independence has been questioned because it shares its origins with the trade body.
BPA (British Parking Association): One of the two Accredited Trade Associations for the private parking industry. BPA members use POPLA for independent appeals and must follow the BPA Code of Practice.
IPC (International Parking Community): The other Accredited Trade Association. IPC members use the IAS for independent appeals and follow the IPC Code of Practice.
Accredited Trade Association (ATA): The BPA or the IPC. The DVLA only releases keeper data to operators that belong to an ATA and follow its code, so ATA membership is the gateway to enforcement — and a compliance complaint to an ATA is a real pressure point.
KADOE (Keeper at Date of Event): The DVLA scheme and contract under which accredited operators obtain the registered keeper's details for a parking event. Access can be suspended by the DVLA for misuse — the lever an operator's whole model depends on.
DVLA: The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency, which holds the register of vehicle keepers and supplies keeper data to accredited parking operators via KADOE.
POPLA verification code: The code a BPA operator must provide when it rejects a timely first-stage appeal. You need it to lodge an appeal with POPLA, and the 28-day appeal window runs even if the operator fails to supply it.
Subject Access Request (SAR): A request under Article 15 of the UK GDPR that forces the operator to hand over the personal data it holds about you and your charge — ANPR images, the landowner contract, signage records and correspondence — usually within one month.
Landowner authority: The written authority a parking operator needs from the landowner to issue and enforce charges at a site. Without it — or where the contract names a different operator — the operator may have no standing to charge you.
Letter Before Claim (LBC): A pre-action letter an operator (or its solicitor) must send before starting county-court proceedings, under the Pre-Action Protocol for Debt Claims. Responding properly puts your dispute on the record and can make a claim uneconomic to pursue.
Discontinuance: When a claimant drops a county-court claim before trial. Bulk-litigation parking firms rely on default judgments and frequently discontinue when a motorist files a robust defence, because taking the case to a hearing costs more than the charge is worth.
County Court Judgment (CCJ): A court judgment ordering payment of a debt. It is usually only entered if you ignore a claim (a default judgment) or lose at a hearing, and it can affect your credit — which is why responding to a claim on time matters.
Cost-to-Operator: Revenger's headline metric: an estimate of the admin, fees and legal time each legitimate step forces the operator to spend answering you. When it passes what they demanded, the charge has cost them more to chase than it was worth. It is an estimate, not a statement of another party's actual finances.

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