TV License - Charged for 2 accounts (won't refund)

Blitzwing85

My Mother-in-law has recently moved into a property we own and is renting it from us.
She cancelled the TV License at her previous address, and started it up again in the new property.

(we didn't own a license at that address before we moved out)

Upon checking her bank statement, she has been charged for her new account (same ref number as her previous address) but she has also been charged for a 2nd account (2 months worth) with a new reference number.
She phoned up and cancelled this but when asking for a refund they have refused and they will not provide any information because of the data protection act.

I'm not really sure how they can take money out of HER account yet not tell her who the hell authorised it. The 2nd account isn't even referenced to her new address, OR her previous address.




Any thoughts on how she can get a refund when TV License say they will only issue one when the account holder tells them to...yet we can't find out who the account holder is?

She said just to leave it as it's only £24 but it doesn't sit right with me

Kurtis_Blue

Invoke the Direct Debit guarantee and get the bank to refund it.

If you are suggesting it was someone unrelated to your family that somehow had her bank details and address and used it to strangely buy a TVL then call the police and report the fraud.

Blitzwing85

I don't suspect any fraud as it seems a bit weird to set up a TV License. I can't imagine someone commiting fraudulent transactions with someone elses detail would bother to make sure they have a TV License in place.

It seems much more likely to be an admin error but not sure why none of the details match.

To be honest (and this is coming from my wife) my mother-in-law is thick as they come so often comes across problems and we've had to help her a lot with the change of address and details - but it's not easy when she's the account holder.

Maybe it's a mistake she made.

But I'll inform her to go through the DD guarentee then for her refund


It could still be fraud though but it seems a waste to open an enquiry for such a small amount - then again the principle of it is more important than the money and she's quite tight finanically hence why we are helping her out but there have been so many property changes It's likely just a mix up.

She got divorced, we bought their house, then we part-ex'd it for a new house for ourselves, then we rent our old property to her. The father-in-law moved into a new place (he already had a flat) and then rents his flat to his son.
Mind you I tried the post codes of everyone with the ref number on the TV License site and none of them worked....so who knows