Keeper liability – Paragraph 11 condition

Paragraph 11 of Schedule 4 of the Protection of Freedoms Act sets out the third statutory condition which must be met in order for the ‘creditor’ (the parking company) to benefit from ‘keeper liability’. For ease of reference this is the salient text:-

11 (1) The third condition is that—

(a)the creditor (or a person acting for or on behalf of the creditor) has made an application for the keeper’s details in relation to the period of parking to which the unpaid parking charges relate;

(b) the application was made during the relevant period for the purposes of paragraph 8(4) (where a notice to driver has been given) or 9(4) (where no notice to driver has been given);

(c) the information sought by the application is provided by the Secretary of State to the applicant.

We are aware of anecdotal evidence that some parking companies have not met this requirement; they have got keeper data via other means. For example, reusing keeper data from other tickets issued to that vehicle, or assuming the keeper’s details from the vehicle livery (e.g. a company van). If the parking company used another means to get the keepers details, other than making an application to the Secretary of State (via its agents at the DVLA), then arguably there is no keeper liability.

Here we provide an example letter that you can use to query whether your data has been retrieved legitimately. If you have received a private parking ticket via the post and the ticket (Parking Charge Notice) cites Schedule 4 of the Protection of Freedoms Act and/or ‘keeper liability’, then you can use this letter to check whether the parking company has met this requirement.

Email this letter to: DataProtection.Policy@dvla.gov.uk

The Protection of Freedoms Act (PoFA) 2012 –
An enquiry regarding Paragraph 11

Name
Address
Date

Dear Sir,

As DVLA records will confirm, I am the registered keeper of a motor vehicle registration number…………………………..

I recently received a postal Parking Charge Notice demand for a payment from a Private Parking Company.

The Notice makes reference to Sch 4 of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 (‘PoFA’) and/or ‘keeper liability’.

I understand that Paragraph 11 of PoFA makes it a statutory requirement for the creditor (or a person acting for or on behalf of the creditor) to have made an application for the keeper’s details to the Secretary of State.

I therefore require the Dft, acting on behalf of the SoS, to provide the following information:-

1) Confirmation (or otherwise) that my data was requested and supplied in accordance with that statutory requirement.
2) The full details of the name and address of the requestor
3) The date of the request
4) The date that my personal details were given
5) The date of the alleged contravention specified by the requestor
6) The details of the alleged parking contravention.
7) The location of the alleged parking contravention

Regards

[your name, the registered keeper]

We would welcome any feedback you have on using this letter – there’s a thread on the Pepipoo forum here to do so: http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showtopic=97031&st=0

1 Comment on “Keeper liability – Paragraph 11 condition

  1. I contacted the DVLA with this template. You are asking too much in this template and the reply I received was to pay a fee for the information requested.

    So then I kept it simple and only asked whether there was a request for my personal information made by the third party around a certain date (did not ask for any personal information), then I got the answer I needed without payment.

    When contacting the DVLA for this purpose, include:
    – the date on the parking charge notice
    – the parking company’s name
    – (your vehicle no. and your name as the registered keeper)

    Do not request information of a personal nature, unless you need it, in which case you need to pay a fee for it.