No, and now the law lords have decided that you are legally liable for any penalty a parking enforcement agency may wish to impose on you. Chip shop owner Barry Beavis appealed against just such a private parking penalty and the Law Lords in the Court of Appeal spent two months deliberating as to whether or not Parking Eye could enforce contractual penalties of this type.

The ruling announced on 23rd April is that parking enforcement agencies can enforce reasonable penalties against drivers as a “commercially justified deterrent” as long as the charges (£85 in this case) are not “not extravagant or unconscionable”. For this to change, the Supreme Court would have to rule against the Appeal Court decision: /faq/private-parking-penalties/