I would take a photo clearly showing the boarded-up meters and the 'free' parking sign and another photo of your car all with a timestamp. That should cover you.

As I understand it, the legitimacy of a private company being able to charge you for parking rests on the assumption that you will have read a prominently displayed notice which shows the terms and conditions, and this forms a contract between the company and you.

Parking your car there shows you have accepted the contract.

In the case described above, there is no display of terms and conditions relating to parking and therefore no contract. It is not legally possible unilaterally to impose a contract with retrospective effect, when one of the two parties is unaware of it.

"...would the fact that I parked there when it was free mean they couldn't charge me?" - Yes.

P.S. Just seen Xileno's comment. If you follow his advice you have all the proof you need.

Edited by FP on 06/08/2020 at 20:22

This sounds like a COVID lockdown-related issue. Many parking control firms could not (despite the nature of their job being outside for the vast majority of the time) operate during lockdown (or at least that was what the ecuse was for the firm patrolling my housing development's roads / parking areas was), hence why the covered up the signs and meters.

Now that things are getting back to some vestige of normality, the likelihood of them resuming normal patrolling and charging operations is quite high - mine already has.

I agree with the others that it IS a risk, but at the very least take photos of the covered up signs and ticket machines, especially showing them with your car in the same photograph. Useful to date stamp the photo as well.

To me, unless it's a council car park (where the resumption of charging / ticketing would have to be made public somehow), parking there is just not worth the potential hassle if you do get ticketed.

There is also the risk of the car being vandalised or even stolen, especially if the car park has no CCTV and the car is likely going to be on its own for an extended period.