Park anywhere for free in the UK with a car cover?

Does covering your car with a car cover mean you can park free anywhere in the UK?

We’ve been seeing instances of a graphic below that claims a simple loophole in UK law allows any person to park anywhere they like free from parking tickets simply by covering their car with a vehicle cover.

The graphic asserts that traffic wardens – or civil enforcement officers – are not allowed to interfere with the cover and thus cannot ticket the vehicle.

But is it true?

It would be nice (or perhaps not so nice depending on what position you assume) to be permitted to park anywhere you wish free in the knowledge of some perceived parking immunity, but before you rush out to buy that car cover, the reality is somewhat more complex.

There are two issues that would make this particular course of action an unwise one – firstly the question of whether it is actually illegal for a traffic warden to remove a vehicle cover as claimed in the graphic, and secondly whether you’d be committing an offence by using the cover in the first place.

Neither of these issues seems to side favourably with the motorist.

In 2005 the issue made its way to the House of Lords, where a question was posed to then Deputy Chief Whip Lord Bryan Davies regarding whether traffic wardens could legally remove a vehicle cover to establish identity of a vehicle for the purposes of potentially issuing a ticket. His response –

While there is no specific legislation which permits, or prohibits, the removal of vehicle covers for the purpose of establishing its identity, it is an offence under Section 43 of the Vehicle Excise Registration Act 1994 to obscure a vehicle’s registration plate. Parking attendants have a legitimate interest in determining registration details if they believe a vehicle is contravening a traffic law. I understand that parking attendants do remove covers to establish a vehicle’s identity and it would be, ultimately, for the courts to decide on the legality of such actions.

The first issue – as to whether a traffic warden would actually be committing an offense by removing or lifting a vehicle cover – is somewhat an interpretation that can determined by a court, since there is no legislation in the UK that specifically deals with vehicle covers. This means motorists at the business end of a parking ticket can take up the issue in a court of law for a determination.

But a court of law may be the last place they’d want to end up, because as Lord Davies points out, it is illegal to cover your car as to obscure or hide the registration details (plate and tax disc) as per the Vehicle Excise Registration Act 1994. Doing so, in worse case scenarios, can result in a car being clamped or even towed.

And if a court is the place where such a dispute does ultimately end up getting resolved, given that Lord Davies emphasised that traffic wardens have a legitimate interest to establish the identity of a car, and that such a case would illustrate that the motorist has concealed their registration details to avoid having to pay for a parking ticket or to otherwise park illegally, this isn’t a “loophole” we’d hold out much hope for.

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Additionally, Pay and Display car parks require users to display their tickets clearly in the windshield. Covering the car would prevent a motorist from doing so, thus the motorist would still be committing an offence.

So does covering your car allow you park anywhere for free? No. You’re still committing an offense by even attempting the loophole in the first place, and whilst we cannot comment on what specific traffic wardens would do when encountering a car that has been covered, don’t be surprised if you end up getting in trouble.

And it is also worth noting that a traffic warden may not be the people who stumble upon your concealed car. Police officers may encounter your car, or you could even run the risk of the car cover being stolen!

We all may get frustrated when faced with a parking fine, but spreading inaccurate and misleading information that could potentially get people into trouble is certainly not the answer.