tv licence help

cutesee

hi in a bit of a pickle, just got a letter through for a court sumons as we (me n flatmates) haven't paid our tv licence and have been living ther since september. Can we just pay for one now and hope it goes away or will we have to pay a hefty fine in court?help please!!!!!!!!!!

newfoundglory

whose name is on the summons? did you get a visit from one of their license "officers"?

is it a fake - it should have a case number and be stamped by the court too for it to be geniune.

cutesee

yup my flatmate let one in and a tv was on, he signed something saying we didn't have a licence and that was in october. I thought that if we paid it now and wrote a letter that it might get dropped????

Oldernotwiser

cutesee wrote:

yup my flatmate let one in and a tv was on, he signed something saying we didn't have a licence and that was in october. I thought that if we paid it now and wrote a letter that it might get dropped????

Why on earth have you left it for 4 months to get a licence? You might have avoided a fine if you'd bought one straight after the visit but I'd think you'll get fined now. Why would you think they'll just drop it; there aren't any extenuating circumstances that I can see. Welcome to the real world!

newfoundglory

cutesee wrote:

yup my flatmate let one in and a tv was on, he signed something saying we didn't have a licence and that was in october. I thought that if we paid it now and wrote a letter that it might get dropped????

Letting them in a signing the letter was a mistake.

Call them up. The fine won't be £1000, they never are.... but if it goes to court the fine will likely be between £150 and £250, plus the costs of TV Licensing (maybe £50-ish), payable by the person named on the summons.

I would suggest the person named on the summons goes to citizens advice who will be able to put you in contact with free legal advice. The only possible way out (and even then not guaranteed) would be on using various points of law, and for that a good lawyer would be required.

Oldernotwiser

Another thing; do you only have the TV in the living room? If you have separate tenency agreements and have separate TVs in your rooms then you'll each need a licence.

http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/information/students.jsp

I wouldn't bother fighting it - this one's a fair cop! Learn from it.

Oldernotwiser

newfoundglory wrote:

Letting them in a signing the letter was a mistake.

Call them up. The fine won't be £1000, they never are.... but if it goes to court the fine will likely be between £150 and £250, plus the costs of TV Licensing (maybe £50-ish), payable by the person named on the summons.

I would suggest the person named on the summons goes to citizens advice who will be able to put you in contact with free legal advice. The only possible way out (and even then not guaranteed) would be on using various points of law, and for that a good lawyer would be required.

And the cost of buying the licence(s), backdated to September. I wouldn't waste the CAB's time; they have better things to do.

newfoundglory

Students rarely if ever have separate tenancy agreements - usually its a standard short-term tenancy agreement with joint and several liability. At least, when i was a student i never came across one.

Oldernotwiser

newfoundglory wrote:

Students rarely if ever have separate tenancy agreements - usually its a standard short-term tenancy agreement with joint and several liability. At least, when i was a student i never came across one.

When we were going to do buy to let for students we were told that separate agreements were the norm nowadays. When I was a student myself, joint liability was normal; I think either tenancy agreement is possible these days.

j_davies

Oldernotwiser wrote:

And the cost of buying the licence(s), backdated to September. I wouldn't waste the CAB's time; they have better things to do.

Ignore this, try CAB they are very helpful in the matters of a TV Licence

:beer:

Oldernotwiser

j_davies wrote:

Ignore this, try CAB they are very helpful in the matters of a TV Licence

:beer:

To watch television you need to buy a television licence. This household haven't bought one and have admitted this to the authorities. Why should they try to get out of paying a fine and expect an organisation like CAB to give up valuable resources to helping them avoid their responsibilities?