The Nice People Thread, No.16: A Universe of Niceness.

ivyleaf

Pyxis How complicated!

Pastures That must have been dreadful :eek: I entirely agree you're entitled to have a good scream yourself now!

Really hoping next door won't do the "Everyone back to ours to play computer games until 5 a.m.!" thing tonight.

zagubov

Pyxis wrote: »

Well, I had a little look, and I was wrong about the communal hall licence. Re. the not plugged in thing, you're partly right..........


QUOTE
A halls communal licence won’t cover your room. But you may be covered by your parents’ licence. If you think you are, please check that all of the following are true before telling us you don’t need one:

# Your out-of-term address (parents’ address) is covered by a TV Licence
# AND you only use TV receiving equipment that is powered solely by its own internal batteries
# AND you have not connected it to an aerial or plugged it into the mains.
UNQUOTE

So if your home address has a licence you're ok if you don't plug in the device.

That's interesting. - I suppose it means you're OK to charge up your laptop and then unplug it to watch iplayer etc.

I didn't have a telly when I moved into my first flat in London. The previous occupant was blind, but we didn't half get visited by the TV license people a lot. Somebody once said they just visited unlicensed houses on the assumption that everybody had a TV set.

SingleSue

Pyxis wrote: »

If it is, it's probably online rather than on TV.

Do students still have TVs any more?

Yes they do....

Joe's halls, they have one in the lounge area of their apartment (I get told off for calling it a flat), TV licence is organised by the uni but if they want a TV in their individual rooms, they need to buy one.

James bought his own TV for his halls room plus the licence.

Josh (and the rest of the housemates) had TV's in all of their rooms plus a TV in the lounge, again TV licences were purchased.

Pyxis

Ok, what's the difference between a flat and an apartment?







Also, am just wondering if you can still get TVs that run on internal batteries?


Edit...... yes you can.
I bet, though, that in a lot of places, the built-in aerial wouldn't be good enough, and if you plugged in a main aerial, you'd need to get a licence!

PasturesNew

Pyxis wrote: »

Ok, what's the difference between a flat and an apartment?

Aspirational marketing language targetting naive young people into thinking they're getting something far smarter/grander than the reality .... that it's "just a flat" ...

SingleSue

Pyxis wrote: »

Ok, what's the difference between a flat and an apartment?

One supposedly sounds posher than the other, apart from that, no idea (hence why I keep being told off for calling it a flat).

Must admit though, it is a very nice student halls build, miles away in quality from the halls James had in all bar his last year at uni. Joe's one is brand new this year, in fact the builders handed over the the blocks on the morning of everyone arriving. They've got plush carpets, a massive kitchen with everything you could possibly need, a lounge area with 3 sofas and a large smart television and very well thought out storage solutions in the admittedly quite small individual rooms. Best of all, it's on campus and very central to everything, he can be in lectures in less than 2 minutes door to door.

He also has an amazing view of the waterfront with the cathedral in the background.



A zoomed in view....




James is annoyed though, he was paying more than Joe is in halls which were very much inferior in quality but then he had the vicinty to London factor.

chris_m

Pyxis wrote: »

Ok, what's the difference between a flat and an apartment?

Probably the price

vivatifosi

I think that a flat is something that you live in, whereas an apartment is what you call your flat when you want to sell it.

This differs from the US, where an apartment is something you rent, a condominium/condo is what you buy, paying your fees to the condominium association. You can still rent a condo, but the owner of the condo will be your landlord, whereas with an apartment the whole block is owned, rather than the ownership being piecemeal.

Clear as mud, no?

michaels

Europeans in the centre of big cities tend to live in apartments whereas in the suburbs there are blocks of highrise flats.

A us condo may often be mutliple floors in a low rise building.

Pyxis

How many people are sharing his [STRIKE]flat [/STRIKE]apartment!