Yesterday, 09:40 AM
(This post was last modified: Yesterday, 10:09 AM by Tortfeasor.)
Hi everyone.
This case concerns a Parking Charge Notice issued by Horizon Parking Ltd.
Alleged contravention on Friday, 22 May 2026. The notice itself is dated Wednesday, 01 July 2026, and I first became aware of the contravention via a “keeper reminder notification.” No other notice was delivered.
The notice appears to have been issued by post (ANPR/camera).
Driver identified status: NO.
Equality Act considerations: Yes.
The location is stated as Tesco [location redacted].
A preliminary Protection of Freedoms Act (PoFA) assessment indicates NON_COMPLIANT: Likely outside PoFA paragraph 9 timing window. Route applied: PoFA paragraph 9 (postal NtK, no windscreen NtD). The notice is treated as given on Friday, 03 July 2026 (42 days after the alleged event). On this basis, keeper liability may not be established.
Current stage:
- Notice responded to: Yes
- Debt recovery letters: No
- Letter of Claim: No
- County Court claim: No
The alleged contravention is the car overstayed by 11 minutes, 53 seconds (going by the ANPR photos Horizon has sent me) at night. It was a Friday night, and the Tesco would have been open until midnight.
I regularly work 400 miles away. The car I’m the keeper of is kept at my family’s address, where it’s been registered since 2018. As I’m working away a lot, I ask relatives to start/occasionally use the car, so the battery isn’t going flat etc. I was home most of June though, and no notice to keeper was delivered within 14 days of 22 May 2026. I’d have seen it. The first I learned of it was when I opened a keeper reminder notification letter, issue date 1st July 2026 (attached a redacted copy).
Did some reading up about these things, and noted that for the PoFA keeper liability to apply, the statutory conditions had to be met. This is ultimately why I’m contesting it.
To date Horizon has failed to produce the first keeper notification. I don’t think one was sent, or even exists. It seemed to me they’re just chancing it. I sent a first appeal to Horizon on 10th July 2026, pointing out they did not appear to have met the PoFA conditions for keeper liability to apply. I’ll post a summary of my appeal to Horizon in a second post.
Horizon responded to my appeal on 31st July. It seemed I’d just been (mostly) sent a template, or it was a phishing attempt to get me to name the driver. Their email invited to me submit additional evidence, “to support your claim that you were shopping in Tesco,” when I had made no such claim in my appeal at all! I had however clearly stated several times in what I’d submitted that no keeper notification had been delivered within 14 days. I would have thought Horizon would have sent me a copy of it. They haven’t.
I was working away throughout most of July and August, and realised it might help if I could take some photos of the signs at this Tesco at the same time (between 22:45-23:57). However, I’m not due home until next week. So I took Horizon up on their option of submitting additional evidence, to buy myself time and get a new POPLA code. One of my relatives visited the Tesco, and took photos of the car park entrance sign for me, but it was still quite light at 20:00.
.
I checked against the British Parking Association Code of Practice, and picked a few holes about the car park entrance sign with reference to the BPA Code of Practice. I sent additional points of appeal and my first appeal points again, along with photos my relative had taken on 7th August.
I finally received an appeal rejection from Horizon on 28th August, and am now intending to appeal to POPLA. Horizon’s latest email stinks of template response.
I’ll attach it to a second post with the appeal points I’d sent.
Please can I have thoughts/advice on the strongest next steps and defence points, as well as any relevant experiences others have had.
Thanks in advance.
As mentioned above, I’ve attached both parts of the appeal sent to Horizon and their rejection from 28th August.
Separate point about the elusive notice to keeper
As well as my appeal, I sent a subject access request (SAR) to Horizon’s data protection team after they failed to send a copy of a “first” notice to keeper after my first appeal. To date I have only had the “reminder to keeper notification,” as attached in my opening post.
After some back and forth emails, Horizon’s data protection team replied to my SAR, and stated there were no letters or records with my name or address, other than the same emails I’d sent to them with my SAR.
I was very clear in what I was requesting in the SAR: I wanted electronic copies of letters Horizon Parking Ltd and associated companies had sent to me at the address I provided. I received nothing. Frankly, I thought this said it all about Horizon. They didn’t even send a copy of the reminder to keeper notification letter, which I had specifically mentioned in the SAR.
This further reinforces my belief there was never a (first) notice sent to the keeper before that reminder letter I’ve had. Why wouldn’t they have taken the opportunity to have included this in their response to my appeal, if it existed of course?!
This case concerns a Parking Charge Notice issued by Horizon Parking Ltd.
Alleged contravention on Friday, 22 May 2026. The notice itself is dated Wednesday, 01 July 2026, and I first became aware of the contravention via a “keeper reminder notification.” No other notice was delivered.
The notice appears to have been issued by post (ANPR/camera).
Driver identified status: NO.
Equality Act considerations: Yes.
The location is stated as Tesco [location redacted].
A preliminary Protection of Freedoms Act (PoFA) assessment indicates NON_COMPLIANT: Likely outside PoFA paragraph 9 timing window. Route applied: PoFA paragraph 9 (postal NtK, no windscreen NtD). The notice is treated as given on Friday, 03 July 2026 (42 days after the alleged event). On this basis, keeper liability may not be established.
Current stage:
- Notice responded to: Yes
- Debt recovery letters: No
- Letter of Claim: No
- County Court claim: No
The alleged contravention is the car overstayed by 11 minutes, 53 seconds (going by the ANPR photos Horizon has sent me) at night. It was a Friday night, and the Tesco would have been open until midnight.
I regularly work 400 miles away. The car I’m the keeper of is kept at my family’s address, where it’s been registered since 2018. As I’m working away a lot, I ask relatives to start/occasionally use the car, so the battery isn’t going flat etc. I was home most of June though, and no notice to keeper was delivered within 14 days of 22 May 2026. I’d have seen it. The first I learned of it was when I opened a keeper reminder notification letter, issue date 1st July 2026 (attached a redacted copy).
Did some reading up about these things, and noted that for the PoFA keeper liability to apply, the statutory conditions had to be met. This is ultimately why I’m contesting it.
To date Horizon has failed to produce the first keeper notification. I don’t think one was sent, or even exists. It seemed to me they’re just chancing it. I sent a first appeal to Horizon on 10th July 2026, pointing out they did not appear to have met the PoFA conditions for keeper liability to apply. I’ll post a summary of my appeal to Horizon in a second post.
Horizon responded to my appeal on 31st July. It seemed I’d just been (mostly) sent a template, or it was a phishing attempt to get me to name the driver. Their email invited to me submit additional evidence, “to support your claim that you were shopping in Tesco,” when I had made no such claim in my appeal at all! I had however clearly stated several times in what I’d submitted that no keeper notification had been delivered within 14 days. I would have thought Horizon would have sent me a copy of it. They haven’t.
I was working away throughout most of July and August, and realised it might help if I could take some photos of the signs at this Tesco at the same time (between 22:45-23:57). However, I’m not due home until next week. So I took Horizon up on their option of submitting additional evidence, to buy myself time and get a new POPLA code. One of my relatives visited the Tesco, and took photos of the car park entrance sign for me, but it was still quite light at 20:00.
.
I checked against the British Parking Association Code of Practice, and picked a few holes about the car park entrance sign with reference to the BPA Code of Practice. I sent additional points of appeal and my first appeal points again, along with photos my relative had taken on 7th August.
I finally received an appeal rejection from Horizon on 28th August, and am now intending to appeal to POPLA. Horizon’s latest email stinks of template response.
I’ll attach it to a second post with the appeal points I’d sent.
Please can I have thoughts/advice on the strongest next steps and defence points, as well as any relevant experiences others have had.
Thanks in advance.
As mentioned above, I’ve attached both parts of the appeal sent to Horizon and their rejection from 28th August.
Separate point about the elusive notice to keeper
As well as my appeal, I sent a subject access request (SAR) to Horizon’s data protection team after they failed to send a copy of a “first” notice to keeper after my first appeal. To date I have only had the “reminder to keeper notification,” as attached in my opening post.
After some back and forth emails, Horizon’s data protection team replied to my SAR, and stated there were no letters or records with my name or address, other than the same emails I’d sent to them with my SAR.
I was very clear in what I was requesting in the SAR: I wanted electronic copies of letters Horizon Parking Ltd and associated companies had sent to me at the address I provided. I received nothing. Frankly, I thought this said it all about Horizon. They didn’t even send a copy of the reminder to keeper notification letter, which I had specifically mentioned in the SAR.
This further reinforces my belief there was never a (first) notice sent to the keeper before that reminder letter I’ve had. Why wouldn’t they have taken the opportunity to have included this in their response to my appeal, if it existed of course?!
