Private Car Parks Must Now Give You 10 Minutes Free — But Is It Enough?

If you've ever returned to your car two minutes late and found a £100 ticket waiting on the windscreen, you'll know the particular fury that private parking fines inspire. It's a frustration shared by millions of UK drivers — and now, finally, the rules are changing. A new sector-wide code of practice is set to require private car park operators to provide a mandatory 10-minute grace period before they can issue a charge notice to an overstaying motorist. On paper, it sounds like a win. But dig beneath the surface and a rather more complicated picture emerges — one that raises serious questions about whether this reform goes far enough, who actually wrote the rules, and what drivers still need to watch out for.

What's Actually Changing?

Reported by BBC News, the new code of practice will apply across the private parking sector and introduces three headline changes:

• A mandatory 10-minute grace period at the end of a parking session, during which operators cannot issue a Parking Charge Notice (PCN)
• Clearer, more prominent signage at car park entrances and throughout sites, so drivers know exactly what the rules are before they commit to parking
• A cap on charges, with reduced penalties available to motorists who pay promptly — mirroring the kind of discounted early-payment structure already used by local councils

These reforms apply to private operators — the firms running supermarket car parks, retail parks, hospital sites, and thousands of other locations across England, Wales, and Scotland. They do not affect council-run car parks or on-street parking enforcement, which operates under entirely separate legislation.

Why This Matters: A Sector With a Troubled History

To understand why this is significant, you need to appreciate just how contentious private parking enforcement has become in the UK. Unlike council-issued PCNs — which are backed by statute and subject to robust independent appeal processes — private parking charges are, legally speaking, contractual invoices. When you park in a private car park, you are entering into a contract with the landowner or operator, typically by accepting the terms displayed on the signage.

This distinction has enormous practical consequences. Private operators have, for years, operated in a regulatory grey area — issuing charges that look and feel like official fines but carry none of the same legal underpinning. The result? Aggressive debt collection, misleading correspondence designed to look like official enforcement notices, and charges that bear little relationship to any actual loss suffered by the landowner.

The scale of the problem is staggering. Private parking firms have issued tens of millions of charge notices in recent years, generating enormous revenue — often from motorists who overstayed by mere minutes, or who were caught out by confusing signage and poorly maintained payment machines.

The government has been attempting to address this through the Parking (Code of Practice) Act 2019, which required the creation of a single, statutory code of practice for private parking operators. Progress has been painfully slow. The Act passed, but implementation stalled — partly due to industry lobbying, partly due to successive changes of government. What we now have is an industry-authored code, developed under the auspices of the British Parking Association (BPA) and the International Parking Community (IPC), rather than the fully independent statutory instrument many consumer groups had hoped for.

The Legal Angle: What Rights Do Drivers Actually Have?

Here's where it gets technically interesting. Private parking charges are not fines in the legal sense — they are civil debts. An operator cannot make you pay simply by issuing a notice. To recover the money, they must either:

1. Obtain your vehicle keeper details from the DVLA (which they are licensed to do under the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012)
2. Issue proceedings in the county court if you refuse to pay

The Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 is crucial here. Before it came into force, clamping on private land was effectively unregulated — a Wild West of wheel clamps and extortionate release fees. The Act banned clamping and towing on private land without lawful authority, and crucially, it established keeper liability — meaning the registered keeper of a vehicle can be held responsible for a parking charge even if they weren't driving at the time, provided the operator follows a strict process.

That process includes serving a Notice to Keeper within 14 days of the alleged contravention, and giving the keeper a further 28 days to pay or identify the driver. If operators fail to follow this procedure precisely — wrong dates, incorrect vehicle details, failure to serve notices in time — the charge can become unenforceable.

The new grace period rules add another layer of potential defence. If an operator issues a charge notice within the 10-minute window, that notice should be challengeable on the grounds that it breaches the code of practice. However — and this is important — the code is not yet statutory law. Operators who breach it may face sanctions from their trade association, but the legal enforceability of the grace period in court remains an open question until tested.

What Drivers Should Know: Practical Takeaways

Whether you're a regular car park user or someone who rarely gives parking a second thought, these practical steps could save you significant money and stress.

Before you park:

• Read the signs carefully — and not just the one at the entrance. Walk the car park and check for any additional restrictions on specific bays
• Photograph the signage with your phone, including the time and date stamp. If you later need to challenge a charge, evidence of unclear or misleading signs is one of the strongest grounds for appeal
• Note the operator — look for the name of the company managing the car park. This tells you which trade association they belong to (BPA or IPC) and therefore which appeals process applies

If you receive a charge notice:

• Don't ignore it — a private charge notice can escalate to county court proceedings and ultimately affect your credit record if a County Court Judgment (CCJ) is issued against you
• Check the dates — was the notice served within 14 days? Were you actually in contravention, or did you return to your car within the new 10-minute grace period?
• Appeal promptly — BPA members use the POPLA (Parking on Private Land Appeals) service; IPC members use the Independent Appeals Service (IAS). Both are free to use and genuinely independent
• Use the grace period as a defence — if your alleged overstay falls within 10 minutes of your permitted parking time expiring, cite the new code of practice explicitly in your appeal

The Motoring Groups Are Right to Be Cautious

Motoring organisations including the RAC and Which? have broadly welcomed the grace period announcement but warned that the code still falls short of what drivers need. Their concerns are well-founded, for several reasons.

First, the code was written by the industry itself. The BPA and IPC represent the interests of parking operators — not motorists. Asking them to regulate themselves is a bit like asking a pub landlord to set the drink-drive limit. The conflict of interest is obvious.

Second, the appeals process remains imperfect. POPLA, for all its merits, is funded by the BPA — the very trade body whose members' charges it adjudicates. The IAS has faced similar criticism. A truly independent, statutory appeals body, funded by government rather than industry, remains the gold standard that hasn't yet been achieved.

Third, signage standards, while improved, remain vague. "Clearer signage" is a subjective standard. Without specific, measurable requirements — font size, positioning, contrast, language — operators have significant latitude to continue using confusing layouts that catch drivers out.

Looking Ahead: Reform or Delay?

The introduction of a mandatory grace period is a genuine step forward, and for many drivers caught by minor overstays, it will make a material difference. But the broader picture remains one of an industry that has resisted meaningful reform for years, and a regulatory framework that still lacks the statutory teeth needed to properly protect consumers.

The government has promised that a full statutory code — one with the force of law behind it — is still coming. When it arrives, it should include an independently funded appeals process, enforceable signage standards, and genuine consequences for operators who breach the rules. Until then, the best protection available to drivers is knowledge: understanding your rights, documenting your parking, and being prepared to challenge charges that don't stack up.

The 10-minute grace period is a start. But for the millions of UK drivers who receive private parking charges every year, it's only the beginning of the reform this sector desperately needs.