Parking Fine on a Hire Car: What Rental Operators Do When the Notice Comes to Them
Sheriff Subair
A parking fine on a hire car arrives days or weeks after the hire ended. It names your company as keeper, it has a payment date, and the customer who parked the car returned it long ago. You can pay it or, in some cases, pass it on to the hirer.
This is general information, not legal advice. It covers private parking charges in England and Wales and council notices in England outside London. Where facts matter, take legal advice.
Who gets the notice when a hire car is parked illegally?
The notice goes to the registered keeper, not the person who parked, which for a hire fleet is often you. On a council notice the owner is liable, presumed to be the registered keeper, whoever was driving. On private land, Schedule 4 of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 lets a parking company recover unpaid charges from the keeper if its conditions are met, and its notice must invite you, if you were not driving, to give the driver’s name and address.
Private parking charge or council penalty notice: which one have you got?
A parking charge notice comes from a private operator. A penalty charge notice comes from a local authority and explains representations and appeals to an adjudicator. Both are shortened to PCN but are different things.
What does your hire agreement need before you can pass a notice on?
A private parking charge needs the hirer’s signed statement of liability. It must acknowledge responsibility for parking charges incurred while the car is hired to them, and give an address for documents.
For council notices in England, the hirer must have signed a statement acknowledging liability for penalty charge notices during the hire. The regulations take “hiring agreement” from section 66 of the Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988, which refers to prescribed particulars such as hire start, expected end and, on your copy, actual return. Ask a lawyer whether your agreement meets them.
How do you pass a private parking charge to the hirer?
Under paragraph 13, a parking company cannot recover from the keeper under Schedule 4 if, within 28 days beginning the day after the notice to keeper was given, it is given a statement signed by or for the hire firm that the car was hired to a named person, a copy of the hire agreement and a copy of the hirer’s signed statement of liability.
Delivery counts, not posting: hand them over, leave them at an address the notice gives for documents or payments, or post them there so they arrive inside the 28 days. The company then has 21 days to give the hirer a notice to hirer, and may recover from the hirer once 21 days from that notice have passed. In practice this depends on the facts, including whether the notice to keeper was valid, so take legal advice.
How do you pass a council penalty notice to the hirer?
Under regulation 6 of SI 2022/71 the owner pays by default, and the hirer pays if the car was hired from a hire firm, the hirer signed a statement of liability covering penalty charge notices, and the owner made representations on the hire ground that the council accepted. Under SI 2022/576, they must state the hirer’s name and address, and the council may disregard any received after 28 days beginning with the date it served the notice.
Unless it disregards them, the council has 56 days from receiving them to decide. If it accepts, it cancels the notice to you and the charge is payable by the hirer. If it misses the deadline, the representations are treated as accepted. If it rejects them, you have 28 days to pay or appeal to an independent tribunal. The two regulations word the notice stage differently, so take advice on how this applies to your notice.
Which deadlines are running?
Two clocks are yours to meet when passing a notice on, both 28 days: hire documents and representations. A posted private notice is presumed given, and first class council post taken as served, on the second working day after posting.
| Clock | Whose | Starts | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hire documents (private) | You | Day after notice to keeper given | 28 days |
| Notice to hirer (private) | Parking company | Day after your documents are given | 21 days, then 21 days from the notice |
| Keeper notice, none left on the car (private) | Parking company | Day after parking ended | 14 days |
| Postal notice (council) | Council | Day parked | 28 days, or six months in some cases |
| Representations (council) | You | Notice served | 28 days, then may be disregarded |
| Early payment (council) | You | Notice served | 14 days, or 21 for camera notices, usually half price |
Can you add an admin fee when you pass a notice on?
A fee of your own is a contract term. State it clearly in the hire agreement, and take legal advice on what you can charge.
What records let you respond correctly?
When a notice arrives, log the date it arrived, pull the signed agreement and statement of liability, send them inside the deadline by a route that proves delivery, and take advice if anything is unclear.
Location history shows where a car was, not who was driving. Traknova’s car rental tracking gives a full trip history per vehicle, with every route, stop and destination, and many vehicles from 2016 onwards can be tracked without fitting hardware.
What about peer-to-peer hosts and dealership courtesy cars?
The hire routes are for a vehicle-hire firm, which Schedule 4 defines as a person engaged in the hiring of vehicles in the course of a business. If the route does not fit, the default position applies: a private notice invites you to name the driver, and on a council notice the owner is liable by default. Whether a host or free courtesy loan fits is a question for legal advice. Courtesy Cars, Demonstrators and Test Drives covers fines in your name.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to pay a parking fine on a hire car I did not drive?
A private parking company given your three documents inside 28 days cannot recover from you as keeper under Schedule 4. If a council accepts your representations on the hire ground, the hirer pays instead. If neither route fits, the default position applies, so take legal advice.
How long after the hire can a parking fine arrive?
A private notice to keeper where nothing was left on the car or handed to the driver must be given within 14 days beginning the day after the parking ended. A council postal notice must be given within 28 days beginning with the day parked, or six months in cases regulation 10 sets out. A notice to owner must be served within six months beginning with the “relevant date”, which regulation 20 defines case by case, so take legal advice on which applies.
Want a clear record of when each car left, where it went and when it came back? Talk to Traknova about your rental fleet, or see how we work with car rental businesses.