Parking Fine While Your Car Was at the Garage for Repair?

When Someone Else Was Driving Your Car

You drop your car at the garage on Tuesday morning for a service. You collect it Friday. The following week a Notice to Keeper turns up: a £100 Parking Charge Notice for parking on a yellow line, two streets from the garage, on Wednesday lunchtime. You were at work. The car was at the garage.

This is one of the cleanest POFA defences a keeper has. Under Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 Schedule 4 Paragraph 5(2), a registered keeper who identifies the driver to the operator within the response window cannot be held liable for the charge. The operator must pursue the driver, which here is the garage.

Why The Operator Came After You First

Private parking operators identify the registered keeper by querying DVLA against the number plate on their ANPR or warden image. They have no way of knowing your car was at the garage that day. Their letter to you is automatic.

The Notice to Keeper is the trigger. Under POFA Schedule 4 Paragraph 6, an operator can only pursue the keeper for a parking charge if:

1. They sent a compliant Notice to Driver at the time, or a compliant Notice to Keeper within 14 days
2. They had reasonable cause to believe a contravention occurred
3. The keeper was given the opportunity to identify the driver

It is point 3 that hands you the exit door.

The POFA Schedule 4 Mechanic

POFA Schedule 4 Paragraph 5(2) reads (in plain English):

The operator may only recover the charge from the keeper if, after being given a proper opportunity to identify the driver and to provide a current address for that driver, the keeper fails to do so.

Translation: name the driver, give the address, and the operator's claim against you collapses. Their only remaining route is to pursue the actual driver. In your case, that is the garage.

The garage was a bailee of the vehicle. A bailee is someone in temporary lawful possession of someone else's property under an agreement (here, the garage receipt or job sheet). Bailees who incur charges while in possession (parking fines, congestion charges, fuel) are typically liable for those charges, both to the bailor (you) and, where POFA applies, to third parties they identified themselves to as drivers.

Step-By-Step: How To Transfer Liability

Step 1: Find Your Booking Confirmation

You need:

• The name and address of the garage
• The dates you dropped off and collected the car
• Any text, email, WhatsApp or paper job sheet that shows the car was in their possession on the date of the contravention

If you used a chain (Halfords, Kwik Fit, Formula One Autocentres), the booking is in your email. If you used an independent, check WhatsApp or look for the printed job sheet.

Step 2: Identify The "Driver" Properly

The driver under POFA is the person in physical control of the vehicle at the time of the parking event. If a specific mechanic moved the car, the driver is that individual. In practice, you will not know which member of staff drove it, so you name the garage as a business, with the address, and let the operator chase the legal entity.

A limited company garage is a legal person and can be served. A sole trader garage is the individual, named. You can check Companies House for the legal name and registered office.

Step 3: Write To The Operator Within The Response Window

Most Notices to Keeper give you 28 days to respond. Within that window:

1. State that you were not the driver
2. Identify the driver (the garage) with full registered address
3. Exhibit the booking confirmation showing the car was in their possession
4. Cite POFA Schedule 4 Paragraph 5(2) and require the operator to discontinue any claim against you as keeper
5. Offer to provide a witness statement if needed

Send by tracked post or email with read receipt. Keep a copy.

Step 4: Notify The Garage

Send the garage a separate letter saying:

1. You have received a parking charge for [date, location, amount]
2. The vehicle was in their possession that day
3. You have transferred liability to them under POFA Schedule 4
4. They should expect contact from the operator
5. You are notifying them now in case they wish to dispute the charge directly

Most reputable garages will accept this and pay. Their commercial vehicle insurance often covers it. Some pay you direct to keep the customer relationship intact rather than dealing with the operator.

Step 5: Keep Records If The Operator Persists

Some operators ignore POFA transfers and continue to chase the keeper. This is non-compliant but it happens. If you receive further demands:

• Re-send your transfer letter
• Add a complaint to the single appeals service
• If a Letter Before Claim arrives, escalate again with the full POFA Sch 4 argument

If the operator issues a court claim despite a properly executed POFA transfer, your defence is strong. ParkingEye v Beavis [2015] UKSC 67 confirmed that POFA's keeper-liability provisions are exhaustive: an operator cannot side-step them.

What If The Garage Disputes It?

The garage might say they did not park on that road, or that you collected the car earlier than the contravention time. This is where your booking confirmation matters. Three pieces of evidence usually settle it:

If T is between X and Y, the car was in the garage's possession. The bailee is liable.

If the garage moved your car off-site for any reason (collecting parts, road test, MOT centre run), they remain liable. Bailment continues until the vehicle is returned to you.

Insurance Angles

Garages that hold trade plates or Motor Trade Insurance (Road Risks) are insured for vehicles in their custody. Parking charges are not usually covered by motor insurance directly (they are not third-party damage), but most established garages absorb this kind of cost as part of running the business. Smaller independents sometimes resist; persistence usually wins.

If the garage refuses entirely, your route is small claims against the garage for the charge plus reasonable costs, on the basis that they were the bailee. The bailment argument is well-established in English law (see Coggs v Bernard (1703) and the modern restatement in Pickfords Removals v East Anglian Mortgages [1986]).

The Bigger Picture: Other "Not Me" Scenarios

The same POFA transfer mechanism works for:

• Hire cars: hire company received the NtK first because they are the keeper, then transferred to you. Reverse the transfer if you can show the contravention happened before pickup or after return.
• Family or friends borrowing the car: identify the driver. Family members often pay rather than dispute.
• Sold cars where the buyer hasn't updated V5C: notify DVLA of the sale (form V5C/2) and exhibit your proof to the operator. Liability transfers to the new keeper.
• Stolen vehicles: report to police, get a crime reference number, send to operator. Usually cancelled immediately.
• Wrong driver entirely (cloned plates): see our wrong driver appeal letter.

Related Reading

• POFA 2012 Explained
• Notice to Keeper Rules
• Wrong Driver Appeal Letter
• ParkingEye Operator Profile