TV Licensing: Vent and Warning

vigman

Hi

At my holiday home I have a valid TV licence bought on the first day it became due.

Since then, I have received increasingly threatening letters about not holding a valid licence. The latest says that an investigation has now started!

I have emailed, tweeted, phoned and written. Every time on the phone I get an apology as the licence is valid and I won't be hearing from the enforcement team again...then another letter comes!

What worries me is that despite asking them to use my main address (where another valid licence is held) for all correspondence as well as email, the threatening letters are coming to the holiday home. Had I not visited, (as I didn't last year due to hospitalisation) I would have known nothing about the investigation and possibly, if it got that far, a court summons??

How difficult can it be to mark on a system that a valid licence is held after a great deal of direct contact and confirmation?

Has anyone else been down this route and has anyone ever been taken to court when they held a valid licence?

TIA

Vigman

bod1467

Judge: Mr. Vigman, you are accused of not holding a valid TV licence for <property>. What can you offer in defence of this claim?

Vigman: How about this copy of my valid TV licence for <property>? Which TVL are well aware of but refuse to update their systems accordingly. Thus their claim has no foundation, never had, and THEY KNEW THIS yet still proceeded with the case!

Judge: Case dismissed. Costs to the defendant to the tune of £XXX due to the claimant's unreasonable behaviour.

/Judge Rinder

maninthestreet

They are sending the letters to the property thay they (in error) believe does not have a valid TV licence. They are unlikely to issue a court summons unless they have evidence equipment capable of receiving a live TV signal is in use at the said property - mere suspicion is not enough.
You may want to set up re-direction of the post with RM from the holiday home to your main residence.

vigman

Stupid thing is that they have a record of a valid licence at the holiday for the last 15 years and at main residence (consecutively) for the last 31 years.

You would think that someone would query this apparent unusual non-payment, look up my file (as the phone support folks do) and see a valid licence!?

In my last letter today I have said I will take legal action against them for harassment if I do not get a written apology and confirmation that I hold a valid licence.

Vigman

Azari

maninthestreet wrote: »

You may want to set up re-direction of the post with RM from the holiday home to your main residence.

Yeah, because it's perfectly reasonable to have to go to the expense of setting redirection just because some idiots can't do their jobs properly.

FutureGirl

I would think it reasonable in this instance to do a re-direct when OP is aware they are sending letters to the holiday home, rather than the correspondence address.

vuvuzela

FutureGirl wrote: »

I would think it reasonable in this instance to do a re-direct when OP is aware they are sending letters to the holiday home, rather than the correspondence address.

If redirection was free, I'd agree wth you.
However as it's not cheap, I'd ask you why you feel the OP has to pay for TVL's sheer incompetence ?

maninthestreet

vuvuzela wrote: »

If redirection was free, I'd agree wth you.
However as it's not cheap, I'd ask you why you feel the OP has to pay for TVL's sheer incompetence ?

I would have thought it was good idea to have this set up anyway, so any mail intended for the OP but sent to the holiday let property get to the OP in a timely manner.

fairy_lights

I'd just ignore their threatening letters. You've got a valid licence, so let them investigate away, they're wasting their own time but you don't have to waste yours worrying about it.

vigman

Just received this by email:

"I’ve looked into this and have found that your licence was cancelled in June when you contacted us to ask about a refund.[NOTE to MSE: This was for a mostly unused 2014/15 licence and was a casual query while buying my new licence] This was entirely our error, for which I hope you will accept my apologies.

SNIP

Your licence was not reinstated following your call to us on 3 July and I can appreciate your frustration at having to call us again on 6 August. I can reassure you that your licence was reinstated on 6 August and a letter was sent to you to confirm that the licence is correct and is valid until the end of May 2016."

Wonder when the next investigation letter will arrive?

Vigman

System

If you have a valid license why not just bin every letter they send you? Why continue to waste your time trying to fix their mistake?

A court summons would be a rather humiliating experience.. for them