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Grace period

The minimum time you must be allowed after paid/permitted parking ends before a charge is valid.

Councils and TfL must allow a statutory minimum 10-minute grace period after your paid or permitted time ends before enforcement action can be taken. Private operators are held to a similar standard under their Code of Practice, typically 5-10 minutes, though it can be as little as 1 minute on some short-stay sites. If your overstay was within this window, the charge itself may not have been valid at all.