TV Licensing harassment letters

peter_the_piper

Curiously I've never had a letter from them when buying a telly from the local shop I always use. Either they do not have to or are ""forgetting to""

Dazi

My DP bought a laptop that had a tv thingy so we get letter re the licence. He rang up and explained we had licence in my name gave them the number etc numerous letters followed....we just ignored them! We moved... moved on the saturday....on the Monday man knocks at door and asks for some bloke.....flashes a badge in me face. Tell him I don't know who or what hes talking about and that we only moved into property on the saturday. He then asks if I have TV licence, so I asks to look at the flashed badge again....it looked ok so told him yes I have...he then asks if i have changed the address on it!!!! I repeated very slowly t...h...a...t we had only moved two days ago! he then asked to see the licence and wrote things down on his sheet...I asked for a copy of what he had written down but he didnt have any way of giving it to me. So have now writted to licence place to ask them to confirm that we have given new addy........4 weeks on still waiting. Seems they cant cope with reverse requests! lol.

edthedead

moonrakerz wrote:

This morning I got a letter from these reptiles (good name, Count_Dante !) saying: "we have authorised officers to interview you under the Police & Criminal Evidence Act".

Being an honest, upright, law abiding citizen I am not that well versed in the in and outs of PACE; however a quick look at the Home Office website seems to state that PACE is to "provide the police with the powers they need" (my underlining).
Apart from which I do not have answer questions from a Police officer anyway, let alone a TVL "reptile".

Is there a "proper" officer out there who would care to comment on this, please.



Passing thought - I wonder if the TVs in HM Prisons are licenced ?

A PACE interview is just an interview under the guidelines of PACE i.e. on tape and under caution (while not under duress etc). I am pretty sure (although not 100%) that TV licence officers have no power of arrest, so would not be able to take you to a police station to carry out an interview, so unless they are planning to turn up on your door step and interview you I would like to know how they are going to do it. I have never heard of police officers accompanying TV licence people to arrest and interview someone for not having a TV licence (and very much doubt that you would get past a custody officer with a prisoner for that anyway!).

As you say, even if they were to interview you, you don't have to answer their questions and the court is not able to draw any inference from your silence (or 'No Comment' answers).

Every office I work from has the TV licence taped to the top of the (usually broken or stuck on channel 5) telly :rotfl:

angeldeelite

when we moved into a flat last year, the tenants before had obviously been using a tv without a license as there were lots of letters. within 2 days we had somebody knocking at our door every single day for about 10 days. Sometimes even morning then night, from the TV licensing company.

kevsam65

These sites (see links) i have foound to be quite useful.Also a petition on one of them to sign to abolish the license.HTH.
sam.
http://http://www.tvlicensing.biz/

http://www.tvlicensing.biz/phpBB2/

eryn_kathleen

I'm having problems with Capita due to my flat address, which (to be fair) always seems to confuse people.

To use a fake example:
We live in a tenement with 12 flats. We live on the second floor, number three (each of the four floor has flats numbered 1 through 3).

There's a notice on our main door from the postie, asking us to list our addresses at 2F3. First floor, flat three would be 1F3. Easy peasy!

The problem is that the person who lived in the flat before us registered the TV license as 1/6 Apple Road. This would translate as number one Apple Road, flat number six (three on first floor, three on second floor, makes us number six). I've contacted Capita several times to let them know that we have a license and that the two addresses are actually the same flat, but we're still getting letters and now they're threatening court action. I'm not particularly worried, because I have a license, but I'm annoyed and frustrated with them wasting my time! My one concern is for "The Legal Occupier" at 1/6 Apple Road, whose credit rating may be put in jeopardy.

moonrakerz

edthedead wrote:

I am pretty sure (although not 100%) that TV licence officers have no power of arrest,

You are correct there, these so called "officers" have no more powers of arrest than my daughter's pet rabbits; I was just wondering about the legality of this pseudo - threat regarding PACE.

Mr_Meanie

Here's an interesting little site for all you TV licence anarchists out there.

http://www.bbctvlicence.com/2006%20letters.htm

I've had much the same selection of letters over the last few years and a few weeks ago a man from Capita came to see me, unfortunately I was out at the time, shame, I would have loved to have a chat with him, but he did leave me a nice card saying he will call back soon.

cornishpirate

Mr_Meanie wrote:

I've had much the same selection of letters over the last few years and a few weeks ago a man from Capita came to see me, unfortunately I was out at the time, shame, I would have loved to have a chat with him, but he did leave me a nice card saying he will call back soon.

Am with you Mr M :beer:

No Tv Licence for 6 years ...... Around 70 notices of impending vists because my address is illegal :rotfl:

One visit that I missed ......... now they are trying to trick me ...... I had a recorded delivery letter addressed to the Legal Occupier. I guess they want to find out my name but refused to sign for it!

I believe that as long as I say nothing to them when they come a knocking and as long as they have no evidence (ie they cant hear or see a television) There is nothing they can do .... except result to the bully boy tactics!:mad:


About time this unjust tax was abolished!

moonrakerz

Mr_Meanie wrote:

I've had much the same selection of letters over the last few years and a few weeks ago a man from Capita came to see me, unfortunately I was out at the time, shame, I would have loved to have a chat with him, but he did leave me a nice card saying he will call back soon.

I feel a bit miffed - I seem to have missed out on all the earlier missives shown on Mr Meanie's link. I seem to have gone straight from a red reminder to the "sophisticated detection equipment" and "PACE".
Perhaps this is another Tony B liar "target", to make sure everyone is harassed within 18 weeks of receiving their first reminder !!!

Ah well ! perhaps the "authorised officers" will be knocking at my door soon. I really would like to speak to someone from this bunch of cowboys - other than via an 0870 number.