TV Licensing DIRTY CHEATING SCUM!!!!

digp

moonrakerz wrote: »

I have put several posts on this and a similar thread about TV licencing, the reason being that I have been refurbishing an empty house. Over the past 9 months I have been getting a steady stream of "threatening" letters from the TVLA, who quite honestly I have now developed complete and utter contempt for !

I am completely sure of the legal ground on which I stand:

For a long period the house had no television in it at all. This didn't stop the threatening letters though !. It does actually have a television built into the kitchen furniture now, but as I do not watch this television I do not need a licence.
The TV 'snoopers' do not have any right of access to my house without a warrant from a Court. To get this they have to show 'reasonable cause' to believe that I am using a TV without a licence. To be able to state to a magistrate that this is so, they will have to sit in their detector van until they can prove I am using an unlicenced TV - they will have a long wait !!!

The TVLA send out letters and put "pseudo" legal statements on their website to try and frighten people. Stand you ground against these bullies - if you are watching TV without a licence, I fully support them, but the way they behave towards a minority of people who quite legitimately don't have a licence is quite disgusting !

When I move to the new house I shall transfer my licence from my present house. I shall also write to the TVLA and complain about their completely unwarranted threats that they have sending me through the post.

yeah they wrote to my mate a few times, we told them to f--k off.

moonrakerz

digp wrote: »

yeah they wrote to my mate a few times, we told them to f--k off.

I couldn't be bothered wasting the ink to even do that !

celyn90

I get the letters too, I don't have a TV and have no intention of buying one. I just open the letters, very politely write across them (usualling in felt pen!) that I have no TV then send it back in the enclosed pre-paid envelope. That way they have to pay for the privilage of sending me junk.

battybouncer

When they send out threatening mail to people by mistake where does postage,cost of envelope and paper come from?Yes,the licence money!

Rain_is_Insane

My only bug bear with Tv licencing (and yes i begrudgingly have one) is my TV is not connected to an outside aerial per se, but to my Sky box. I pay a subscription to sky for the channels i receive, which include all the BBC channels, so in effect i am paying twice !!

maninthestreet

Rain_is_Insane wrote: »

My only bug bear with Tv licencing (and yes i begrudgingly have one) is my TV is not connected to an outside aerial per se, but to my Sky box. I pay a subscription to sky for the channels i receive, which include all the BBC channels, so in effect i am paying twice !!

No you are not - even if Sky did not include the BBC channels, a TV licence would still be required.

camelopardis

moonrakerz wrote: »

I have put several posts on this and a similar thread about TV licencing, the reason being that I have been refurbishing an empty house. Over the past 9 months I have been getting a steady stream of "threatening" letters from the TVLA, who quite honestly I have now developed complete and utter contempt for !

I'm in the same situation! Have inherited a house which had stood empty for years. Its empty, and I've been renovating it off and on over the last three years. Have had loads of threatening TV license letters, all in red, and threatening summonses and court action.

The funniest thing is that they're all addressed to "The occupier" hahaha! They don't even have my name! Yeah right! So you're going to issue a summons to "The Occupier" are you? Needless to say, I've never once bothered replying!

dangeroussports

Thats fascinating. What else?

Meanymoo

I just checked this thread to see if I was correct in thinking that we could use our tv to watch DVDs etc, without a licence, as long as we don't connect to an aerial or tune the channels - so thanks everyone for confirming what I thought! I personally don't want to pay £135 for the dubious pleasure of watching cr*p TV anymore, so I won't be renewing my licence this year.

I don't know if anyone's still interested in the 11 month / 12 month licence issue mentioned earlier on in this thread but I bought my licence at the end of July, and when it arrived in the post I checked the details and realised it expired at the end of June. I just assumed they'd made a mistake, so I phoned them up and said "You've only given me an 11 month licence and I've paid for 12 months", and the woman on the phone amended the licence renewal date for me to the end of July and sent a letter confirming this. I just thought it was a one-off mistake, but it's obviously common practice. So it's worth querying - you pay for 12 months, you should get 12 months.

Hapless_2

If you have a tv, as long as a) its not connected to an ariel and b) its not tunned in to any channels then you are not breaking the law

True.

However you CAN still use the tv for watching dvd's etc without having a licence.

true have done it. You can also use them for PC consoles.

In reality (from what i've heard), be prepared to get eyed suspiciously and have your tv inspected by the licensing people if you go down this route.

True, had a visit when we had no tv license and they inspected and then gave us a piee of paper to say we were not recieving a signal.

We then went and bought a digibox so bought a TV license.

Remember that not only does the BBC tv come out of the license fee but all the BBC radio stations too.