TV licence people wanting to open a 'full investigation'.

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  • Cornucopia
    Cornucopia Posts: 16,156 Forumite
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    Let's not go round this yet again.

    It's like this:-

    1. If you Watch or Record TV broadcasts, live as they are transmitted (whether you do so via terrestrial, cable, satellite or internet streaming) then you need a TV Licence.

    2. TVL enforcement is ill-defined, because it lacks the remit from legislation that it probably needs. TVL people trudge round all the unlicensed addresses, and their main weapon is to ask whether a Licence is needed or not.

    3. For reasons unknown to man, 400,000 householders a year somehow talk themselves into a confession for Licence evasion, though, again, because of lack of legal compliance, a proportion of those will be false confessions, and a further proportion will be technically (legally) flawed.

    4. Electronic Detection is not in routine use, but there is nothing to stop a TVL person who personally witnesses evasion using that evidence to support a prosecution.
  • Robisere
    Robisere Posts: 3,237 Forumite
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    I would not have this problem, even if I had no TVL and no TV. (I have both.)

    I live in a Sheltered Housing complex of bungalows and I have made several laminated door stickers for myself and neighbours who wanted one.

    "This is a Sheltered Accommodation Home.
    Callers MUST have obtained permission from the Landlord.
    Only official, prearranged appointments, showing ID, will be accepted.
    We DO NOT buy goods or Services at the door.
    No Hawkers, Pedlars or Canvassers.
    Repeated attempts to ignore this notice, will result in a call to the Police."

    OP: bin all these letters. They will not progress this further than letters.
    This is how I deal with Junk Mail: collect all from one source, either return to sender with a polite request to recycle the paper, or if there is no address, save all those for a while and use any return envelope to do the same.

    Strangely enough, I am getting very few such letters nowadays.
    I think this job really needs
    a much bigger hammer.
  • Blackbeard_of_Perranporth
    Blackbeard_of_Perranporth Posts: 7,605 Forumite
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    poppasmurf_bewdley wrote: »
    You don't need to be authorised to go into someone's property and see through their windows in many homes. All you have to do is go through the gate and approach the front door.

    A quick photograph or video from a camcord device or an iPhone taken at a noted time of a certain part of a certain soap would be conclusive proof that live TV was being watched.

    I'm not getting into the pro's or con's of doing this. All I'm saying is that it is possible to see what many people are watching without going into a home. With body worn camcorders, etc, which many officials now wear, it will be perfectly possible to see if someone IS watching live TV - and have the evidence.
    Absolute Codswallop.

    These so called BBC Sales reps have no power over you or I. To gain access to your property, they need to go before the beak, requesting a warrant to search the property. They need to assure the beak that a crime is being committed.

    Scrap the regressive TV Tax
  • Zapito
    Zapito Posts: 166 Forumite
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    JustAnotherSaver wrote: »

    ... the only TV watching we do is on BBC iPlayer ...

    Seems that's going to change - soon you'll need a licence for that. My lobbying seems to have worked!

    Next thing BBC Radio.
  • Zapito
    Zapito Posts: 166 Forumite
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    Blackbeard_of_Perranporth wrote: »

    Scrap the regressive TV Tax

    It's not a tax. Don't watch TV and you won't need to pay for a licence. Simples!
  • Cornucopia
    Cornucopia Posts: 16,156 Forumite
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    Zapito wrote: »
    It's not a tax.

    IIRC the Government say it is.
  • Cornucopia
    Cornucopia Posts: 16,156 Forumite
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    Zapito wrote: »
    Next thing BBC Radio.

    What about BBC Radio?
  • itstheone
    itstheone Posts: 57 Forumite
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    Cornucopia wrote: »
    What about BBC Radio?

    IIRC years ago a TV Licence covered you to listen to the radio, they removed the requirement to have a licence. Maybe they want to cover it again. I certainly wouldn't pay £150 a year to listen to the radio!
  • brewerdave
    brewerdave Posts: 8,508 Forumite
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    itstheone wrote: »
    IIRC years ago a TV Licence covered you to listen to the radio, they removed the requirement to have a licence. Maybe they want to cover it again. I certainly wouldn't pay £150 a year to listen to the radio!
    As far as I can remember, the "radio" licence ceased to exist with the arrival of battery powered portable "transistor" radios.Everyone and his dog had one in the 60s.
    Can't believe they would be stupid enuf to reimpose -I wouldn't pay £15 per year let alone £150 !!:rotfl:
  • Cornucopia
    Cornucopia Posts: 16,156 Forumite
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    itstheone wrote: »
    Maybe they want to cover it again.

    They don't - there has been no official mention of radio licensing.

    The only other place I have seen it mentioned other than in Zapito's post, is in extreme "fantasy pro-BBC" posts on Digital Spy. I can only assume some kind of link between Zapito and that crowd.

    Interestingly, radio licensing is proving to be a tricky issue for the German authorities in their adoption of a broadcasting levy. Stupidly, they decided that each vehicle with a radio in it would need a separate levy registration and payment.
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