London parking suspensions for moving house: what every borough charges

The short version

Suspension or dispensation — which one a house move needs

The two products get confused constantly, and the confusion is expensive. A suspension takes the bay out of use. Anyone else who parks there can be ticketed. A dispensation waives a restriction for one named vehicle, and it reserves nothing. Hackney puts it plainly: "dispensations do not guarantee a parking space - apply for a parking suspension if you need a dedicated parking bay."

Two of the six boroughs never use the word "dispensation" at all. Islington and Haringey each call their version a "permission to park" permit. Camden points movers to a "trade permit". The name changes; the limit does not.

What a parking suspension costs in London, borough by borough

The table shows the cheapest way to reserve kerb space for one day of a domestic move. Each figure is verbatim from the council's own page, read on the date shown.

Camden's £66.66 is the administration charge and nothing else. For a house move, Camden waives the first-day space charge for up to 3 consecutive spaces, and its £349.81 short-notice charge does not apply. Book the same three spaces at three days' notice for building works and the bill is £655.36. For a house move it is £66.66.

Haringey sits at the other end: £280 of administration plus £80 a space, and the admin fee is charged again for every separate road. That is a 5.4 times spread between two adjoining boroughs, for identical work on the same day.

Enfield is its own case. It does not list removals as a reason for a suspension at all — only utility works, funerals and special events. It publishes a £145 admin fee but no per-space daily rate, so no honest total can be quoted. Enfield's answer for a house move is a £10-a-week dispensation, collected in person from the Parking Shop in EN1.

Islington's answer is different again. It gives movers no discount on the £164.80, but a signwritten removals van can load free on a single yellow line or in a resident bay, for as long as loading is continuous. The detail is in the Islington guide.

The notice periods, and why the longer one wins

Book the bay before you book the van. The clocks are not interchangeable:

• Hackney: 7 working days, and the count starts the next working day after you apply.
• Barnet: 7 calendar days.
• Enfield: 10 working days.
• Islington: 14 days, or 10 for Pay By Phone bays.
• Haringey: 2 weeks.
• Camden: 17 days, with an absolute minimum of 3.

A move between boroughs needs a separate application at each end. Every council charges its admin fee per application, and several say outright that each road needs its own. The two clocks then run together, and the longer one governs the move. Moving from Hackney to Camden? Hackney wants 7 working days but Camden wants 17 days, so 17 days it is.

Red routes: when the kerb belongs to TfL, not the council

A red route is TfL's road, and no borough can help you there. Haringey says it in terms: "We do not give suspensions for red routes." TfL sells no suspension product at all. What it offers is a dispensation — £48 a day on red lines, £38 a day in a loading or parking bay — with 6 working days' notice, and no late applications on red lines at all. In North London that covers the A1, the A406 and Seven Sisters Road, among others. The full picture is in red routes: moving house where the council cannot help.

If a car is parked in the bay you paid for

No borough guarantees the bay will be clear, and none refunds you if it is not. Every one of the six puts the burden on you to ring and ask for enforcement. Hackney is blunt: "removal services are not part of the parking suspension service."

Camden adds a sharp edge. If the suspension had less than 14 days of on-street warning, having a blocking car towed costs £200 per vehicle — non-refundable even if the car drives off before the tow arrives.

Approval itself is not absolute, either. Every council, and TfL, reserves the right to amend or cancel a suspension. Camden says it may do so "at any time".

Where this lands on your move

The fees above are the councils' charges, not ours, and most councils expect the application to come from the resident. What we do is tell you which authority owns each kerb, which product actually covers the vehicle, and which clock starts first — then plan the day around it. Tell us both postcodes when you ask for a quote, or start with house removals.

Questions we get about suspensions

Sources

Every figure above was read from the authority's own page on the date given. Council fees are typically uprated each April, so all of them are re-checked then.