Frequently Asked Questions

Parking Charge Notices (PCNs) are issued as the result of a parking infringement on private land or in a car park which is operated by private organisations on behalf of the landowner or managing agent.

The amount of a parking charge notice will be written on the Parking Charge Notice you receive, either fixed to your vehicle or via letter sent in the post. 

It is advisable to review details provided on the terms and conditions signage on site before deciding to remain on the private land.

Ignoring a parking charge notice is generally not recommended. Private parking companies can pursue payment through civil means and may take legal action against you to recover the outstanding amount. Ignoring the notice can lead to additional charges, damage to your credit rating, and potential legal consequences.

In most cases, liability for a parking charge notice can be easily transferred providing the registered keeper of the vehicle can demonstrate that someone else was responsible for the parking at the time of the infringement. This should be actioned as soon as the Registered Keeper becomes aware of the parking charge to allow the operator to ensure a new notice is issued to the correct liable party.

Negotiating a reduced payment for a parking charge notice is possible in some cases. However, it is at the discretion of the parking operator. You can contact them to explain your situation, providing any supporting evidence or mitigating circumstances using the online appeals process. While some parking companies may be open to negotiation, others may not be willing to reduce the amount.

As a motorist, you have the right to appeal a parking charge notice, request evidence from the parking operator, and seek recourse through independent appeal bodies. 

It is crucial to familiarise yourself with the applicable regulations and obtain qualified legal advice if needed to understand your specific rights and options.

Whilst you may have been a genuine ticket holder, by failing to ensure that the Pay and Display ticket was correctly on display, the parking attendant will have been unable to validate the ticket at the time of inspection, meaning you breached the terms and conditions of parking and a PCN was correctly issued. You can appeal and provide supporting evidence that you had a vali paid session in place at the time and this will be looked at on an individual basis.

Most Car Park Operators are reasonable, and have a fair use policy, which means that if you make a minor keying error when entering your registration number in an ANPR/Pay and Display car park, and appeal correctly using the operators internal appeals process, the Parking Charge Notice (PCN) should be withdrawn, subject to payment of a nominal cancellation charge in the region of £15-£30.

Usually, the cancellation policy would allow up to 1 digit incorrectly entered. If more than one digit was incorrectly entered, this will result in the Operator making a request to the DVLA for the Registered Keepers details for non-payment of the parking tariff, on the basis that they will not be able to link your payment against the correct vehicle.

If you have any problems with entering your vehicle's registration, we would advise you to contact the operator using the contact details on the car park signage.

If the machine is not working, it is the responsibility of the driver to decide what to do next. The signage on site usually states that enforcement takes place 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and by choosing to remain on the land, you will be in breach of the terms and conditions which may result in a PCN being issued. The best advice is to contact the operator using the information on the car park signage or to exit the car park and find an alternative parking solution.

It is important that 'all' motorists make themselves aware of the terms and conditions of any private land site they wish to use. 

Signage will identify these terms and inform the motorist what they are required to do to remain on that site.

Disabled Badges, also more commonly known as Blue Badges, do not always give you free parking on privately-owned land, and full tariffs may apply to you. 

You should always refer to the signage on site when parking your vehicle to ensure you follow all terms and conditions that are relevant to you.

(please refer to the handbook that comes with the blue badge for further details).

If you enter and remain on private land for longer than the consideration period without purchasing a pay and display ticket, a paid cashless session or having a registered valid permit/virtual permit, even if you do not leave your vehicle, you will be liable for a PCN. 

It is at the landowners discretion as to what they deem a reasonable consideration period to allow a driver to read the signage and make an informed decision as to whether to remain on the land or vacate.

Many online forums and advice centres will tell you that a PCN is just an invoice, and that you do not have to pay this 'fine'. 

This is entirely incorrect. Charges are issued under a contractual relationship with the driver and/or keeper of the vehicle at the time of the parking event.

The terms and conditions of parking are listed on the signs within the car park showing the contractual rates.

These charges are in line with The International Parking Community's (The IPC) Code of Practice, and Schedule 4 of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 (POFA). If the driver of the vehicle breaches the terms and continues to remain onsite, they are accepting liability and are contractually agreeing to pay a parking charge to the Creditor.

In our experience, a proportion of drivers tend to ignore PCN’s until they reach pre-court action. They do so on the basis that they have sought advice through online forums and were told the PCN was neither valid nor enforceable. 

We would always recommend that you seek independent, qualified legal advice to ascertain your options before making a decision to ignore.

We can not provide copies of our contracts between ourselves and the landowner/managing agent due to various reasons including data protection and commercial sensitivity. 

However, should the case be taken to the county court to recover a debt, copies of all relevant documentation will be disclosed at such time.

We receive Registered Keeper details from the DVLA, through a KADOE Licence, (Keeper At Date Of Event) and it is the responsibility of the Registered Keeper to ensure the address held by the DVLA is always up to date and correct. 

The registered keeper of and vehicle must ensure any change of address is updated not only on their driving licence, but also in their logbook by completing a change of address on a V5C form as these are two separate items.

Details of amending your address with the DVLA can be found via the link below:

www.gov.uk/change-name-address-v5c

If you have received a PCN, you can appeal directly to us  using our online customer portal, via email to appeals@asteriaparking.com or in writing by post to our correspondence address. 

Details can be located on the back of your PCN. 

We will respond to your appeal with 14 days via the same method you use to appeal:

Postal appeals – must contain a return address so that the appeal outcome response can be posted to you.

Online appeals – The outcome will be emailed to  the email address provided in your online appeal submissions.

It is the responsibility of the appellant to ensure that the correspondence details provided for their appeal response are correct. 

If you do not receive an outcome within 14 days, please contact us and do not assume that your appeal was successful.

If we do not hear from you, we will assume that you have received the response and if payment is not made, collection attempts will continue and progress to debt recovery where further costs/charges are added

If you believe the charge has been issued incorrectly and submit an appeal  within the timeframe for the reduced rate, then the PCN will remain on hold at this amount until a decision has been made and notification sent to you. If your appeal is declined, then you will have a further 14 days to pay at the reduced rate. 

However, if upon receipt of your appeal outcome you choose to appeal further to the Independent Appeals Service (The IAS), you will lose the option of paying the reduced rate and the full PCN value will apply.

If you submit an appeal outside of the timeframe for the reduced rate, then the PCN will remain on hold at the full PCN value until a decision has been made and notification sent to you. If your appeal is declined, then you will have a further 14 days to pay at the full PCN value.

As an operator, we are in contract with the landowner or authorised management agents, to provide parking management and enforcement services on their behalf. 

Therefore as an operator we have a legitimate interest in pursuing PCN’s when a breach of the terms and conditions has been detected. 

As members of the industry Trade Associations, we are subject to strict audit processes which must be passed before we can issue PCN’s on a site. 

During the audit process, we must demonstrate to the IPC that we have a contract between us and the landowner/managing agents, a site map to show the location of all warning signs and true copies of the signs we intend on using.

If your appeal has been declined by our internal appeals team, then you can appeal further to the Independent Appeals Service (IAS). All information on how to appeal to the IAS will be provided in your appeal outcome letter/email.

If after your internal appeal was rejected and you choose to appeal further, using the IAS, then the full PCN value will apply if an IAS appeal is rejected by the adjudicator. 

This information is available to you and contained within your appeal outcome letter/email so you are informed prior to deciding what to do next.

All operatives are trained to the highest standard and for each parking charge issued, they take numerous pictures to record the event, all of which are date and time stamped.

Sites that are managed by ANPR camera technology record images of vehicles entering and exiting sites, which are also date and time stamped.

The Data Protection Act 2018 is the current prevailing legislation in the UK, which governs how personal data is processed. We take our responsibilities seriously and have implemented a comprehensive range of policies and processes to ensure that we protect your data. You can view our privacy policies by clicking on the link at the bottom of this page.

When registering an appeal, the onus is on the appellant to ensure that they provide accurate correspondence information. Once an appeal has been received, we will send our response back via the method we receive the appeal in. Whether it is by email or post. You will receive a response within 14 days. If you have not received a response within 14 days, you must contact us otherwise the matter may escalate. You can use appeals@asteriaparking.com quoting your PCN Number as a reference

If you wish to make a complaint, you can do so either in writing to our address on the back of your PCN (FAO Complaints Department) or via email using complaints@asteriaparking.com. 

You can review our complaints policy via the link at the bottom of this page, which sets out how we deal with complaints. Please note that the complaints policy is independent from the PCN appeals process and we will not consider a challenge against a PCN, as a valid complaint.