Parking company taking you to court?
Here are your deadlines.
A Letter of Claim gives you 30 days to return the reply form. A county court claim form gives you 14 days to acknowledge and 28 to defend, counted from the date of service. Miss them and the operator can ask for judgment without a hearing. Tell the free checker which letter you have and it works out your dates and the points to raise; the £29 pack then drafts the reply, the defence and a subject access request for you to send and file yourself.
Free check, no account. Every deadline on this page cites the rule it comes from.
Two letters, two different clocks.
A Letter of Claim
From the operator or its solicitors. It says court is next, names the Pre-Action Protocol for Debt Claims, and should enclose an information sheet, a reply form and a financial statement form. No claim number. The 30 days run from the date printed at the top of the letter.
What to do: return the reply form inside the 30 days, tick that you dispute the debt, and ask for the photographs, the signage plan and the landowner contract. Once you do, they should not issue a claim until at least 30 days after they receive your reply or send the documents, whichever is later.
Check my Letter of ClaimA county court claim form
Headed with a claim number and the court seal, usually from the Civil National Business Centre (County Court Business Centre) in Northampton, with a response pack. Bulk parking claims are issued through Money Claim Online, so the claim number is eight characters.
What to do: file an acknowledgment of service within 14 days of service saying you intend to defend the whole claim, then file your defence within 28 days of service. Both can be done online with the claim number and the password on the form.
Work out my court datesFour dates that decide the case.
Checked against the published rules on 10 October 2026. Each row links to the rule. A deadline that falls on a day the court office is closed moves to the next day it is open (CPR 2.8(5)); the checker does that for you.
Letter of Claim: return the reply form
30 days
Counted from
The date at the top of the letter. The form must reach them inside the 30 days.
Source: Pre-Action Protocol for Debt Claims, para 3.4 and Annex 1
Court claim: acknowledge the claim
14 days
Counted from
The date of service. If none is printed, the fifth day after the issue date, business day or not.
Source: CPR 10.3; PD 7E para 5.7
Court claim: file the defence
28 days
Agreed extension for the defence
Up to 28 more days
Counted from
Only if the claimant agrees in writing. Ask before the 28 days run out, and tell the court.
Source: CPR 15.5
The documents for your stage, in your name.
If you have a Letter of Claim
- ✓Reply to the Letter of Claim, disputing the debt on the points the checker found and requesting the photographs, the signage plan and the landowner contract under paras 4.1 and 5.2 of the protocol
- ✓Subject access request to the operator under the UK GDPR, for every record it holds about the charge and the vehicle
- ✓Your reply-form deadline, and the earliest date they may issue a claim after your reply, tracked in the workspace
If you have a court claim form
- ✓A short defence kept to 1,080 plain characters so it fits the online response box
- ✓A full N9B-style defence with numbered paragraphs, the rule and paragraph references, and a statement of truth, for filing by email or post
- ✓A keeper statement if you are answering as the registered keeper and have not said who was driving
- ✓Your acknowledgment and defence dates, counted from deemed service and moved off days the court is closed
The short defence is kept to 1,080 characters, the most conservative reported limit for the online response box, because HMCTS publishes no official figure. The full defence is always available for filing by email or post. Every document is built from the points the free checker found in your dates and facts, each with its source.
One parking charge · one-off
£29
Per parking charge, no subscription. Start with the free check: it tells you your dates and whether there is a point worth fighting, and says so when there is not. The pack opens a workspace with the drafts, the deadlines and a case chat that has read your answers.
If a document we generate fails a procedural check, tell us within 14 days and we’ll fix it free or refund you in full. Court fees paid to HMCTS are not refundable by us. Your statutory rights are not affected.
Most judgments are won by silence, not argument.
Ignoring it because “it is only a parking ticket”
Once a claim is issued the question is no longer whether the charge was fair; it is whether you respond in time. Silence is the one route that guarantees a judgment.
Only acknowledging, then forgetting the defence
The acknowledgment buys 28 days from service for the defence. It does not file one. Diary the second date the day you acknowledge.
Paying the “debt recovery” add-on without asking for its basis
If you are being pursued as keeper, the Act caps what can be recovered from you at the amount stated in the notice to keeper (Sch. 4 para 4(5)). The pack asks for the contractual basis of anything above it.
Saying who was driving when you did not have to
A keeper is not obliged to name the driver. Never say anything untrue, but do not volunteer what the Act does not require.
Writing an angry letter instead of using the reply form
The protocol gives you a form for a reason: it records that you dispute the debt and what documents you want, and it makes the operator wait at least 30 days after providing them.
The Ministry of Justice’s Civil Justice Statistics Quarterly for April to June 2026 records that 94% of money-claim judgments were default judgments, entered because the defendant did not respond. The MoJ publishes no parking-only figure, and CourtPilot does not claim one.
How the court dates are counted
Illustrative, not a real case. A claim form for £170, being a £100 parking charge plus a £70 debt-recovery charge, with the issue fee and fixed costs on top, arrives from the Civil National Business Centre. The issue date printed on it is Monday 5 October and no date of service is shown.
With no printed date of service, the claim is deemed served on the fifth day after issue, Saturday 10 October, even though that is not a business day (PD 7E para 5.7). The acknowledgment of service is due 14 days after service, Saturday 24 October, which moves to Monday 26 October because the court office is closed (CPR 2.8(5)). The defence is due 28 days after service, Saturday 7 November, which moves to Monday 9 November.
The checker shows both dates with the rules they come from. The pack drafts the short defence for the online box and the full defence, pleading that the keeper is put to proof of every condition in Schedule 4 and that the £70 add-on exceeds the amount stated in the notice to keeper (para 4(5)).
Questions people ask when the court letter arrives
Is a parking company Letter of Claim the same as a court claim?
No. A Letter of Claim is the last step before court, sent under the Pre-Action Protocol for Debt Claims. It should come with an information sheet, a reply form and a financial statement form, and you have 30 days from the date at the top of the letter to return the reply form. A court claim form is different: it has a claim number, is issued by the court (for bulk parking claims, the Civil National Business Centre in Northampton), and starts the 14-day and 28-day clocks under the Civil Procedure Rules.
How long do I have to reply to a parking Letter of Claim?
30 days from the date at the top of the letter (Pre-Action Protocol for Debt Claims, para 3.4). The reply form says the business must receive it within those 30 days, so allow time for posting or send it by email if the letter gives an address. If you return the form in time, the operator should not start proceedings less than 30 days after it receives your reply, or 30 days after it provides any documents you asked for, whichever is later (para 4.2).
How long do I have to respond to a parking court claim?
14 days from service to file an acknowledgment of service (CPR 10.3), and if you acknowledge, 28 days from service to file your defence (CPR 15.4(b)). If you do not acknowledge, the defence itself is due within 14 days (CPR 15.4(a)). The two sides can agree to extend the defence deadline by up to 28 more days (CPR 15.5); any agreement should be in writing and the court told.
What counts as the date of service?
If a date of service is printed on the claim form or the covering notice, use it. If not, a claim issued through Money Claim Online is deemed served on the fifth day after the issue date, whether or not that is a business day (Practice Direction 7E, para 5.7). Bulk parking claims are issued the same way. If the 14th or 28th day falls on a day the court office is closed, the deadline moves to the next day it is open (CPR 2.8(5)).
What happens if I ignore the claim form?
If you file neither an acknowledgment nor a defence in time, the claimant can ask the court for judgment in default (CPR 10.2, 15.3 and Part 12). That is a county court judgment against you for the amount claimed plus fees and fixed costs, recorded on the Register of Judgments for six years unless paid within a month. You would then have to apply to set it aside under CPR Part 13, which costs a fee and is not guaranteed.
What does the £29 Parking Defence Pack draft at this stage?
For a Letter of Claim: a reply using the protocol’s Annex 1 Reply Form approach, disputing the debt on the points the checker found and requesting the photographs, the signage plan and the landowner contract, plus a subject access request to the operator. For a court claim: a short defence sized for the online response box and a full N9B-style defence with numbered paragraphs and a statement of truth, plus a keeper statement if you are answering as the registered keeper. The workspace tracks the acknowledgment and defence dates and includes a case chat that has read your answers.
Does CourtPilot reply to the letter or file the defence for me?
No. CourtPilot is not a law firm and does not act for you. The pack drafts the documents in your name; you read them, change what needs changing, sign them, and send them to the operator or its solicitors or file them with the court yourself. The workspace tells you where each one goes and the date it must arrive by.
Can I still fight it if the charge was from a council?
A council or Transport for London penalty charge notice is a statutory penalty enforced through the Traffic Enforcement Centre, not a county court money claim, and is not covered here. This page is for charges from private operators on supermarket, retail park, hospital, station, airport and residential land.
Does this cover Scotland or Northern Ireland?
No. The keeper-liability rules in the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 apply in England and Wales only, and the deadlines on this page are those of the County Court of England and Wales. CourtPilot covers England and Wales.
Read the guides: how to reply to a parking Letter of Claim, defending a parking charge court claim and the added £70 debt recovery fee. Earlier in the process, with a windscreen ticket or a notice to keeper? Start at the private parking charge page.
CourtPilot is not a law firm, is not regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority and does not act for you. The checker and the pack are an information and document-preparation service, not legal advice: you conduct your own case, in your own name, and you are responsible for checking every date and every document against your own paperwork before you send or file it. Where the amount or the consequences matter to you, consult a solicitor. Independent of every parking operator, trade association and appeals service.