TV Licence - shared house and others refuse to pay

lammy82

OP says they know the housemates are watching. They are just willing to convince themselves that they don't watch enough to warrant paying their share of the licence. OP wants to do things correctly/honestly. I don't really have advice OP.  If I paid the licence myself I'd be seething whenever a housemate put the TV on or was using iPlayer in their room. If they are genuinely willing to stop using licence-needing services then fair enough.

lammy82

Joint tenancy OP said. One licence.

unforeseen

If I paid the licence myself I'd be seething whenever a housemate put the TV on or was using iPlayer in their room

Why? If you hadn't bought a licence they would still do those things so it has absolutely no effect on you. 

lammy82

unforeseen said:

If I paid the licence myself I'd be seething whenever a housemate put the TV on or was using iPlayer in their room

Why? If you hadn't bought a licence they would still do those things so it has absolutely no effect on you. 

Maybe seething is a bit strong, but I'd certainly be narked. Because I'd be subsidising their viewing, isn't that obvious? The same as if they refused to chip in for the heating bill meaning I had to pay it all but then they went around turning radiators up when it got cold. I'd feel like a mug.

BMH_123

Mickey666 said:

But why SHOULD anyone pay if they don’t need one?  Why should YOUR viewing habits be subsidised by anyone else?

The point is that they do need one, if we're talking strict terms of who needs a TV licence. No subsidisation coming into the equation, it's not like you pay a pro-rata on a TV licence if you only watched Killing Eve once vs someone watching I'm A Celeb every night.

pphillips

BMH_123 said:

Mickey666 said:

But why SHOULD anyone pay if they don’t need one?  Why should YOUR viewing habits be subsidised by anyone else?

The point is that they do need one, if we're talking strict terms of who needs a TV licence. No subsidisation coming into the equation, it's not like you pay a pro-rata on a TV licence if you only watched Killing Eve once vs someone watching I'm A Celeb every night.

I think what you're missing is that, rightly or wrongly, they won't be buying a TV licence. Your choice to buy one merely emboldens them to watch live TV or BBC iPlayer because they know they can do so legally. If you didn't buy one then maybe they would do right and follow the law or maybe they wouldn't. Either way what they do is not your concern, no one appointed you as the TV licence enforcer.

fred246

The NHS and BBC are both political footballs. Being state run the Tories hate them ideologically. So they try to kill them without being seen to kill them because they are great British institutions. So they made the BBC charge old people to make them unpopular with elderly. Now they're making young people hate the BBC. Students who don't want to pay the licence are avoiding BBC services now. I can't imagine them buying licences when they are older. I do remember during the last election the BBC explaining that young people are more likely to vote labour and then they ran a campaign encouraging young people to vote. Seemed incredibly biased. The whole of my life, though I have always seen TV licensing as a bit silly. All the paperwork and detector vans and court cases. Surely it should have been paid out of general taxation all these years. Never made sense to have a TV licensing system.