You appealed and they never answered. What the Code makes them do
Silence from a parking operator is not a win and it is not a loss. It is a breach of a rule you can quote back at them, and it changes what you write next. The Code their trade association runs them under gives them 28 days — either to answer you, or to tell you they need longer and when they will be done.
What they are required to do
Both trade associations — the BPA and the IPC — run their members under the same document, the sector single Code of Practice. It sets the appeal window for you, at 28 days. In the very next line it sets one for them.
“requires the parking operator to respond to appeals within 28 days or, where a decision on the appeal is not concluded within 28 days, requires the parking operator to acknowledge the appeal and confirm the timeframe for concluding it, including the supply of additional information”
— The private parking sector single Code of Practice, Version 1.1, clause 8.4.1(b), 17/02/2025
Read it slowly, because the second half is the half nobody quotes. If they cannot decide inside 28 days they are not allowed to simply go quiet: they must acknowledge the appeal and confirm the timeframe. So there are only two compliant states after 28 days — a decision, or an acknowledgement with a date. Nothing is the third state, and it is not one the Code allows.
If you sent a complaint rather than an appeal, it still counts
People rarely write the word “appeal” at the top. They write a long, upset, entirely reasonable letter about the signs and the machine. The Code has anticipated exactly that.
“Where a parking operator receives a complaint that it considers to be or include an appeal against the validity of a parking charge, the parking operator must also treat it as an appeal for the purposes of applying the timescales in Clause 8.4, and should inform the complainant as such unless and until it is clear that the complaint is not relevant to an appeal or the complainant informs the parking operator that they do not wish it to be so handled.”
— The private parking sector single Code of Practice, Version 1.1, clause 11.2, 17/02/2025
If what you sent disputes the validity of the charge, the operator must run it on the appeal timescales whatever you called it. And a complaint has a shorter clock of its own:
“A complaint must be acknowledged by the parking operator within 14 days of its receipt unless exceptional circumstances apply, in which case the complainant must be kept informed by the operator.”
— The private parking sector single Code of Practice, Version 1.1, clause 11.3, 17/02/2025
Where you are supposed to be able to find them
Chasing an operator assumes there is somewhere to chase them to. The Code says there must be:
“will only be considered if received in writing (hard copy or by e-mail), the parking operator must ensure that the address to which complaints are to be sent is readily available e.g. on the operator's website and notices.”
— The private parking sector single Code of Practice, Version 1.1, clause 11.1, 17/02/2025
So we went and looked. On 07/09/2026 we read 217 operator websites and recorded only what each company prints on its own pages; 190 responded and could be read. The order is the busiest first: the 79 operators POPLA decided an appeal against in the year to 30 September 2025, ranked by how many, which is the only published per-operator volume figure there is. That is fewer than 217, so the rest are companies on the two associations' approved-operator lists with no published appeal volume at all, read in list order. Being further down this list is not evidence of being smaller — only of POPLA not having decided an appeal against them.
| Of the 190 operator websites we could read | How many |
|---|---|
| Publish an appeal page on their own website | 64 |
| Send you to an appeal portal on a different domain | 25 |
| Have no online appeal route we could find at all | 101 |
| Publish a postal address to write an appeal to | 36 |
| Publish an appeals email address | 11 |
| Publish nowhere to write — no postal address and no appeals email | 151 |
| State a deadline for you to appeal by | 29 |
| Promise how fast they will answer | 13 |
| Publish nothing at all — no appeal page, no address, no contact page | 67 |
Read on each operator's own website with our own reader · 07/09/2026
Two things in that table are worth saying out loud. 151 of 190 give you nowhere to write — no postal address and no appeals email — in a sector whose own Code says the address for written contact must be readily available on the operator's website. And of the 25 whose appeal portal sits on another domain, 16 land on the same shared appeals software rather than anything the operator runs — AtriaHub (atriahub.co.uk) and Zatpark (zatappeal.com). If the “appeal” link on your notice leads somewhere that looks nothing like the company that ticketed you, that is why, and it is not a scam.
The route your own operator publishes, quoted with the page it came from, is on its page here: find your operator.
What to do now, in order
- Count the days from when they received it, not from when you wrote it. Posted second class, add working days. If it is under 28, they are still inside their window. (Your own 28 days are counted differently again, and the operators do not agree on how — where your 28 days actually start →)
- Write once, short, and in writing. Not a phone call — a call leaves no record and this is now a record-keeping exercise. Give the reference, the date you appealed, and one sentence: the Code requires a response within 28 days or an acknowledgement confirming the timeframe, and you have had neither.
- Ask for the rejection code in the same letter. If they intend to reject, you need that code to reach the independent stage — POPLA or the IAS, whichever your operator belongs to —, and the clock there runs from the rejection, not from your appeal.
- Keep paying nothing while you wait. Paying closes the case and cannot be undone.
- If they still say nothing, take it to their trade association as a conduct complaint — that is a separate route from the appeal, and it is the one the Code failure belongs in. The association is named on your notice and on the operator's page here. Next time, head the letter as a complaint as well as an appeal: a complaint must be acknowledged within 14 days and an appeal need not be acknowledged at all — the two clocks, and what 138 operators' own complaints policies promise →
Your notice date in, all three deadlines out, including the independent-stage window for your specific operator. Nothing stored, no signup.
What silence does not mean
| What people assume | What is actually true |
|---|---|
| “No reply means it is cancelled” | No. Only a written cancellation cancels it. Reminders and debt letters can arrive months later |
| “They broke the Code so I do not have to pay” | No. A Code breach is a conduct matter for the association. It does not by itself extinguish the charge — but it is evidence, and it belongs in your appeal and in any defence |
| “My independent appeal window has run out” | Not from silence. 28 days at POPLA and 28 at the IAS run from the rejection. No rejection, no start |
| “I should ring them” | You can, but put everything in writing as well. A call proves nothing later |
| “I will just pay to end it” | That is the only step here you cannot reverse. Once paid, the charge cannot be appealed |
Common questions
How long does a parking company have to respond to an appeal?
28 days. The sector single Code of Practice requires the operator to respond to appeals within 28 days, or — where the decision is not concluded in that time — to acknowledge the appeal and confirm the timeframe for concluding it. Silence for longer than 28 days with no acknowledgement is outside what the Code allows.
The operator has not replied. Is the charge cancelled?
No. Nothing is cancelled until the operator says so in writing. Do not assume a charge has gone away because the letters stopped — they routinely restart with a debt-recovery letter. Chase in writing, keep the copy, and ask for a decision or an acknowledgement with a date.
They ignored my appeal and went straight to debt collectors. What now?
Two separate things are happening and both need answering. The charge itself is still disputed — say so in writing to the debt firm, in one line, and repeat that you appealed and received no response. The Code failure is a conduct complaint to the operator's trade association. Neither is a reason to pay a debt-recovery fee you dispute. What those letters are, and what they can and cannot do →
I complained rather than appealed. Have I missed my chance?
Probably not. Where an operator receives a complaint that it considers to be, or to include, an appeal against the validity of a parking charge, the Code requires it to treat that as an appeal for the purposes of the 28-day timescales. Say plainly in your next letter that your complaint disputed the charge and should have been handled as an appeal.
They have no address on their website. Where do I send it?
Use the address on the notice — it outranks anything on a website. If there is none there either, that is itself a point worth making in writing, because the Code requires the address for written contact to be readily available on the operator's website and notices. We found 151 of the 190 operator websites we read on 07/09/2026 carrying no postal address and no appeals email.
Does the discount survive all this waiting?
Appealing inside the reduced-rate window protects the reduced rate: the Code requires the rate that applied when you appealed to stand for a further 14 days from the date you are notified that the appeal was rejected. If they never notify you of anything, that clock has not started. Check what applies to your notice →
Where every fact on this page comes from
- The 28-day duty to respond or acknowledge, the complaint-that-is-an-appeal rule, the 14-day complaint acknowledgement and the address requirement: The private parking sector single Code of Practice, Version 1.1 (British Parking Association and International Parking Community, 17/02/2025) — checked 20/08/2026 — clauses 8.4.1(b), 11.1, 11.2 and 11.3, quoted verbatim above. Clause 8.4.1(b) is (b) of the same list whose (a) sets the 28-day appeal window itself. Until 5 September 2026 this site cited these at section level, because the Code is a Canva export whose plain-text extraction returns draw order and separates a clause number from its paragraph; the numbers above are read from the printed line positions instead, and every quote is re-checked against the extracted source text on every test run.
- 28 days at POPLA and 28 at the IAS from the rejection: POPLA's own FAQ — popla.co.uk/faqs, checked 24/08/2026 — and IAS FAQs — standard appeals (Independent Appeals Service, as published on 04/09/2026) — checked 04/09/2026.
- Every number in the table: our own read of 217 operator websites on 07/09/2026, ranked by appeals decided against them in POPLA Annual Report 2025 — Appendix (Parking on Private Land Appeals, 30/04/2026) — checked 20/08/2026. A field counted only if the operator's own page carried it: an appeal page had to return 200 and say appeal in its address or its title; a stated window had to put an appeal word and a day count in one sentence; a postal address had to be introduced by the operator as somewhere to write about an appeal or a complaint, which is what excludes registered-office and cheque addresses. 14 sites did not respond and 13 has no website on record; all 27 are excluded from the 190, not counted as failures.
Nobody writes this page because the answer is unglamorous: they have to answer you, and if they do not, you write again and copy the association. It is dull and it works far more often than the internet suggests.
Everything above is free and there is no email wall on it. If you would rather have the chasing letter written for you, that is what we sell, and the guidance stands without it.
— Andrew at Axion Labs. Write to me at hello@getaxionlabs.com if a page here is wrong, or a step does not work.
If you would rather not write it yourself
Everything above this line is free and stays free — the deadlines, the odds, the grounds, the template letter. The paid builder only writes the letter for you. If it does not fit your notice, reply to the receipt and a person — me — will either fix it or refund you. Expect a reply within a few days.
Not sure yet? Check whether you'll lose your discount first — free
Build my appeal letter, freeAnswer 8 questions about your unanswered appeal and get a ready-to-send appeal letter in minutes. It costs nothing, and you can download it.
The one thing on this site you can pay for is one operator’s full POPLA record, £20 once: three years of that company’s appendix rows, the grounds and the clause of its own rulebook that answers each one, its own published route and your clock. See what is in it, free. You never need it to appeal.