The Parking Ticket Mistakes That Could Be Costing You £100

Got a ticket tucked under your wiper or dropped through the letterbox? Before you grumble and pay up, there’s a decent chance you don’t have to. Citizens Advice Cornwall has been pointing drivers towards guidance that lays out exactly when a parking ticket should be cancelled, and some of the reasons are easier to prove than you might think.

The advice covers tickets across England, which includes drivers here in Cornwall. And the headline point is a simple one. If just one of the reasons below applies to you, your ticket should be cancelled.

It costs nothing to try

Making an informal appeal is free. You do it by contacting whoever gave you the ticket in the first place. While you’re appealing, you can’t be taken to court, so your credit rating stays untouched. You’d only end up in court if your appeal fails and you then don’t pay or take it to a tribunal.

If none of the reasons apply to you, the guidance suggests paying early to grab a discount. You can usually get 50% off a Penalty Charge Notice or Excess Charge Notice if you pay within 14 days, or 40 to 60% off a Parking Charge Notice in the same window.

Watch who put the ticket on your car

Here’s something worth knowing. If a parking company stuck a ticket on your car and it isn’t a member of an accredited trade association, don’t contact them unless they write to you first. They probably can’t even find your details, because only members can get your name and address from the DVLA.

You can check whether a company is a member through the British Parking Association or the International Parking Community. You can also ring the BPA on 01444 447 300, though calls cost up to 55p a minute from mobiles and up to 13p a minute from landlines.

When your ticket should be cancelled

There’s a long list of situations where you’ve got a strong case to appeal.

You were parked correctly. If a parking attendant decided you’d overstayed when you were actually within the time limit, you can challenge it. By law, a council Penalty Charge Notice or Excess Charge Notice issued on public land must be cancelled if you didn’t break the rules. On private land like a supermarket car park, if you can prove you stuck to the terms on the signs, your ticket should go.

The signs or markings were unclear. Every car park and restricted road must have signs or road markings that make the rules obvious. Your ticket should be cancelled if you couldn’t see any markings or signs, if they were faded or hidden by trees, if they were misleading, or if there was nothing saying parking was suspended. You should also win if you got a ticket in the post and there were no signs warning that CCTV or automatic number plate recognition was in use.

There was no way to pay. If the meter or machine was broken and there was no other way to pay, your ticket should be cancelled. You’ll need evidence the machine was out of order. One catch though, it won’t be cancelled if there was another working machine you could have used.

You were charged too much. With a Penalty Charge Notice, the amount falls into a higher or lower band depending on how serious the offence was. If you’ve been hit with the higher band when it should be the lower one, appeal. For a Parking Charge Notice, the BPA and IPC rules say you shouldn’t be charged more than £100 unless the company can prove your parking cost them that much.

You weren’t driving. If someone else was behind the wheel when the ticket was issued, you didn’t commit the error and it should be cancelled.

You couldn’t get back to your car. If walking is difficult because you’re disabled, pregnant, or you have a very young baby, you should appeal. The Equality Act 2010 means you must be treated with understanding and can’t be discriminated against.

Your car broke down. If you got a ticket while waiting for your car to be fixed or towed, you’ve got a strong reason to appeal. The ticket issuer should understand you couldn’t move it.

Even a few minutes late is worth challenging

If you were only 5 or 10 minutes over, it’s still worth a go. You’re meant to get a short grace period after your parking runs out. Members of an accredited trade association have to give you an extra 10 minutes before issuing a Parking Charge Notice, and the council should do the same before a Penalty Charge Notice.

Some companies will argue back by timing your stay from the moment you drove in rather than when you actually parked. But because informal appeals cost nothing, and because you have to make one before you can go to an independent tribunal or trade association anyway, there’s little reason not to.

You can read the full guidance and check exactly how to appeal a parking ticket on the Citizens Advice website.