TV Licence Harassment

DavidP24

So got another bully boy letter from Capita AKA TV Licencing today, I thought how harassing they are and thought I would post here to help this community.

You only need a licence if you have equipment capable of watching TV as it is being broadcast, i.e. Live TV.

So a Sky box or any PVR needs one (if connected or capable or receiving live TV) and even then you ONLY need one licence per address.

However, if like me you do not watch live TV, your TV is analogue, can't receive live channels and you only watch stuff on DVD or you that have downloaded or stream, then you do not need a TV licence.

If you watch catch up TV on your laptop you do not need a TV licence.

If you watch catch up TV on your iPad you do not need a TV licence.

Some important points to remember:

They do not have a right to enter your home without a warrant clearly address to you in your name.
They can't get a warrant without evidence
They can't get a warrant without your name
You do not have to answer the door, ask them to pass their ID through the letterbox, make a photo copy then tell them to get lost telling them that you have removed their assumed right of access to the premises including communal areas for tenants.

You can see this all live on YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=tv+licence

or here why Noel Edmunds cancelled his TV Licence

https://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=sH8AXI4GG4o#t=180

It was the NASTY letters that made me decide not to watch live TV, letters saying "this is what you need to bring with you to Court". I actually had prepaid the TV licence from my last address by Direct Debit but when I tried to call their premium rate 0845 number to update them it was a nightmare. The website would not work with me so I called again, then while on hold I reread the offensive letter and thought, "do I really need this" answer was "NO" so I hung up.

Now I have seen all the letters, they just go around in a loop, they include:

• Official Warning: we have opened an investigation
• What you need to know about the enforcement process
• What to expect in Court

I have a nice little collection of these now, I will not pay premium rates to inform them of didly, I will not go online where their website crashes. I will not waste any more of my time. Mostly, I will not be treated as if I am guilty and regularly hassled (as shown on youtube) even if you do inform them or subject myself to inspection.

I even had a guy from capita turn up (after 2 years) he could not get into communal area of my block and there was nowhere for him to leave his note that he called so he left it in the street (litterbug). He did not even fill it in properly, I think it was not even a proper one, just someone paid to try and gather information and leave the note to harass me.

If you do get one knocking at your door, you can either choose not to answer the door or you can tell him to sod off, the latter will make more come and you can then tell the company that if they send any more you will charge a consultancy fee of £500 for meeting their representative and that by sending a representative to your address they agree to the fee.

They have no rights without evidence, they mislead/lie on their letters saying things like

"we can apply to court for a search warrant to gain access to your poperty"

NOT WITHOUT EVIDENCE buddy

"An officer can take your statement under caution in compliance with the Police and Criminal evidence act 1984 or Scottish criminal law"

WHY WOULD I MAKE A STATEMENT OTHER THAT FOXTROT OSCAR

"Anything you say to the officer may be used as evidence to court"

DITTO ABOVE actually best to just not answer the door, if you do then video everything for your own protection.

In the unlikely event that a Police Officer is called (only happens if they have a warrant) tell them it is a civil matter, the person named on the warrant does not live here and to please leave.

and key is the most important truth on their letter:

"A reminder of the law. it is illegal to watch or record programmes as they are being shown on TV without a TV licence, no matter what device you use"

AKA live TV

SO THERE IT IS

My kit can't watch live TV, I have a DVD player and a stand alone hard disk with a USB port.

I am considering getting a NowTV box which has catch-up TV from 4OD etc (but still not live TV) and adding some software to it called Plex to stream downloads from my PC via the NowTV box.

They go on to say that "you can still do one of the following

1. buy a tv licence
2. let us know you don't need one (we may visit to confirm this)"

Well NO, I will not give you my name, I will not subject my home to inspection or waste my time on you. So option 3 should be DO NOTHING.

Years ago in my last place I had Sky, I got fed up with being ripped off with regular price increases, I remember one where they outbid Channel4 for Friends and Lost, then wanted us to pay more for what we were previously watching for free on C4. When I found out that you can't watch what you save on a Skyplus or HD box if you stop subscribing that was enough. £600+ (without sport) a year, for WHAT?

I believe in better, better off without Sky!

I can now buy a DVD set or even download/stream the whole series of Breaking Bad or Game of Thrones. I could subscribe to Netflix for £3 a month and still not need a TV licence. I could get LoveFilm and not need one.

It suits my lifestyle because I do not have time to watch TV, but I should NOT have to be on yet another database where my data may be shared, hacked, sold or lost and subject myself to inspection, they can go to hell.

We have prisons with loads of people (especially women) who have been criminalised by non payment of TV licence or the fines that follow, they cost the state way more than a TV licence. As most of these are on benefits why not just deduct £12 a month from their benefits and let them apply to have it back by declaring they have no TV or other equipment capable of recording live TV.

Capita is a nasty business, threatening people in the same way car clamping & private parking companies used to, all sanctioned by the State. Their days are numbered because if they put up the price of a TV licence or get any heavier, people will just demand the privatisation of the BBC and there will be no need for a TV licence.

You should be able to make a declaration that you do not have one and be done with it, without the regular harrasment. The truth is that the Government likes having access to the data and not having to pay to keep it up to date.

Word is that they are going to decriminalise this, so maybe they will put a stop to it or maybe not, chances are they will slip in a few more laws to take away our privacy and rights.

Imagine if an energy company treated people like this or any other organisation, it would not be allowed. Long term it will be the end of the BBC which is a sad thing, they have priced themselves out of the market with overpaid incompetant idiots running it.

JJ_Egan

This is all in the TV Licence thread .

lucy03

I just filled in a form 18 months saying I don't need a TV licence and I haven't heard anything since.

You can't write a letter to a company saying if they send a representative you'll invoice them for £500. Well, you can write it, but I can't imagine any court will enforce it.

System

[QUOTEyou ONLY need one licence per address[/QUOTE]Not totally correct. There are situations such as HMOs where technically each renter requires their own licence

stevemLS

And it isn't a civil matter, not having a licence when you need one is a criminal offence.

Whether you think that is right is another matter.

tomtontom

We have prisons with loads of people (especially women) who have been criminalised by non payment of TV licence or the fines that follow, they cost the state way more than a TV licence. As most of these are on benefits why not just deduct £12 a month from their benefits and let them apply to have it back by declaring they have no TV or other equipment capable of recording live TV.

Official source please?

shaun_from_Africa

We have prisons with loads of people (especially women) who have been criminalised by non payment of TV licence

Some, but not what I would refer to as "loads".
If these figures are correct:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2589397/MPs-lift-threat-jail-licence-fee-dodgers-BBC-stripped-powers-bring-criminal-prosecutions-agreement-three-main-parties.html
In 2012, 193,000 went to court for not having a valid licence when one was required and of these, a tiny percentage end up in jail. (less than 0.04%)

tomtontom

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

Some, but not what I would refer to as "loads".
If these figures are correct:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2589397/MPs-lift-threat-jail-licence-fee-dodgers-BBC-stripped-powers-bring-criminal-prosecutions-agreement-three-main-parties.html
In 2012, 193,000 went to court for not having a valid licence when one was required and of these, a tiny percentage end up in jail. (less than 0.04%)

I'm getting the figure to be 51, but I don't know how many of them were women or on benefits. I expect the OP can verify the sources for his assertions

Nilrem

adindas wrote: »

The people who end up in jail is the people who refused to pay the fine of less than £1000.
- This could be because they choose to become a martyr. Could pay but stand on own principle
- They are in very low income and thus unable to pay the fine and know after a few weeks she will be released ...

It's (as always) worth noting the jail sentence is purely down to the non payment of the court imposed fine, and IIRC the average stay for non payment of a small court fine (such as is typical with TVL) is usually something like 1-3 nights once you allow for things like the jails not taking people in on X days, not releasing them on Y days and this having to release them on day Z (so they don't hold them longer than the court says).

IIRC the courts can allow for repayments of the fine at levels as low as 50p per week if they're made aware of finances (the reason the courts typically ask for your income is to allow them to set fines at a reasonable level, and so the repayments are affordable).

Elsewhere

It seems to me the TV licence people are doing this backwards.

People who pay for a licence to watch live TV (and those who get it free because of age etc) should get a device to connect to their TV which takes a card (just like Sky) - if they don't pay the card is disabled. I don't know if this should also apply to people who don't ever watch the BBC because I don't know whether the hardware to transmit ITV etc is subsidised by the BBC.

To watch any TV - live or not - which is paid for by the licence fee (ie. not ITV etc) using a PC or other device a unique code/password linked to their TV licence card should be needed.

Thus innocent people would not be harassed, and I reckon a ton of money would be saved applying the licence in this manner.

System

I don't know whether the hardware to transmit ITV etc is subsidised by the BBC.

Arqiva run the majority of terrestrial TV distribution in the UK. ITV, BBC et al all pay Arqiva for this service.

As BBC & ITV share muxes then it would probably be very costly to split them out into separate muxes due to having to add additional hardware at the major Tx sites