TV Licensing!

Gingernutmeg

I'm so angry with the TV licensing authority! Basically, my partner and I have lived in our current flat for just under a year, and we don't have a tv - don't need one, don't want one. We've received numerous letters from them and after each one we've called and explained that we don't have a tv, and we're quite willing for an inspector to visit us so that we can prove this and be left alone. This was in November last year.

However, we had no visits and the letters continued. This morning I got a letter stating that they are starting proceedings against us, and even if we buy a tv licence now it may be too late to stop a court case and prosecution. I called them AGAIN to explain that we don't have a tv, and that I really didn't like the tone of the letters that they were sending to me - I don't appreciate being treated like a criminal just because I don't want to watch TV. The girl on the other end of the phone said that they weren't treating us like criminals, but that an enforcement officer would be coming round to take a 'statement' from us, and that the letters would continue and she no longer wished to talk to me. When I said that I was saving the letters sent to us and it was possible that their actions constituted a form of harrasment, the girl put the phone down on me!

I'm so angry!!! How are they allowed to behave like this?? I completely accept that if you have a TV you have to get a licence, but we don't and we've been trying to prove this for over a year! Instead we get these increasingly nasty letters from a company whose customer service is so bad!! Grrrrrrrrrrrrr

Optimist

Makes you proud to live in Britain doesn't it ?

I would suggest you write (dont phone) recorded delivery telling them that you don't have a licence and that you have told them this on numerous occasions pointing out that they are in breach of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 by their continued harassment of you. Say this is your final letter to them and any further harassment on their part you will take action against them

woohoo_postingid

Let them take you to court - they will be laughed out of court and made to look stupid.

jimsmum

woohoo_postingid wrote: »

Let them take you to court - they will be laughed out of court and made to look stupid.

and will also be out of pocket as they will be forking out for the fees.

Gingernutmeg

Thanks for that Optimist When I get a spare five minutes I'll fire a letter off to them (I'm a final year mature student atm, with lots of revision to do - it's NOT a good time to annoy me lol). I just can't believe that they're so incompetent ... I don't mind an inspector coming round but I imagine that that won't be the end of it, since they seem convinced that everyone must have a TV!

And thanks everyone else - I just exploded this morning as this is about the tenth letter we've had from them this month!!

battybouncer

The way they treat people is a disgrace,also the letters they keep on sending is costing the licence payer,it's about time that they realised that not everyone wants to watch the crap that they show on the BBC.

tripled

Don't open the letters from them if they are worrying you, just chuck them in the bin. I don't have a TV, but I do open them and have a quiet chuckle at all these terrible things they are planning to get the courts to do to me when, as I don't have a TV, they won't do squat. I certainly never bother phoning to tell them I don't have a TV - it's not a legal requirement to, and as you've found out they don't take any notice anyway, so why make the effort?

vikingaero

Send them a Protection From Harrassment letter. Also state in the letter that you will charge them £25 for the next letter received from them, £50 for the next, £75 for the one after that etc and that you will pursue them in court if they don't pay up.

Also in the same letter withdraw the implied right for them to visit your property.

dangeroussports

Everyone owns a mind abdication device in the UK?

How could anyone get through work without discussing celebrity big brother? Or the type shoe Cherie Blair is thinking of buying?

I mean come on people

Gingernutmeg

Thought I'd update you on the latest happening ... this is getting beyond a joke now ...

This morning, someone rang the doorbell, which is odd in itself as we live in a block of flats with keypad entry so most callers come through the entryphone first. Just as I was going to answer the door, the person on the other side started really banging the door, pressing the doorbell, hammering the knocker and rattling the letter box, which scared me so much I decided not to answer the door (I realise I sound a bit wet here but I was in the flat on my own and my area isn't the safest ...). The next thing I heard was the letterbox being opened again, and after a few seconds (presumably while they looked in) someone shouted 'I've got a letter for yoooooouuu - hehehehe' in a REALLY creepy voice that freaked me out totally. There was no way I was opening the door to that! I waited until I heard them go away and looked for the letter, which was something from the TV licensing place AGAIN, apparently they had come round to inspect our property. It really was a scary experience - if I'd known it was the TV people I'd have let them in, but the aggressive hammering on the door made me too scared to open it.

What annoys me about this is that they don't know who I am - letters come addressed to 'the occupier' so they have no idea if I'm male or female, young or old etc. I can imagine that a pensioner, living on their own would have been absolutely terrifed by what happened - I'm 29 and can stand up for myself lol but I was still too scared to open the door. I live with my partner but he was out at the time and there was no way, as a woman on my own in the flat, that I was going to open the door when it was being hammered like that, particularly as they made no attempt to say who they were.

I'm so fed up with all this, are they like this with everyone?

maninthestreet

If an enforcement officer does visit, don't sign anything without reading it very carefully. Someone else on this board had a visit from an EO, and signed what he/she thought was just a document to say the visit had taken place, but in fact was signing a document to say he/she was admitting to using a television without a licence.