TV Licence over payment/refund issue

ant311266

Hope someone can help.

In July 2023 we moved house.  We were selling our individual houses and moving in together and mistakenly transferred both licences onto our new house.  As we were paying this out of two separate accounts hence didn’t pick up on the error until earlier this year. We immediately emailed TV licensing, supplying evidence of move dates at their request.  I had been paying £13.25 a month, so was expecting a refund of around £225.  We were surprised to then get a notification from TV licensing that they were only refunding £79.50.  When I queried this, they emailed back to say they are under no obligation to refund anything, so effectively I was lucky to get what they’d offered?  

Does this sound right?  Feels unfair bearing in mind we had dutifully being paying in full out of our other account.

Any help or advice on how to follow up on this gratefully received.

Aylesbury_Duck

ant311266 said:

Hope someone can help.

In July 2023 we moved house.  We were selling our individual houses and moving in together and mistakenly transferred both licences onto our new house.  As we were paying this out of two separate accounts hence didn’t pick up on the error until earlier this year. We immediately emailed TV licensing, supplying evidence of move dates at their request.  I had been paying £13.25 a month, so was expecting a refund of around £225.  We were surprised to then get a notification from TV licensing that they were only refunding £79.50.  When I queried this, they emailed back to say they are under no obligation to refund anything, so effectively I was lucky to get what they’d offered?  

Does this sound right?  Feels unfair bearing in mind we had dutifully being paying in full out of our other account.

Any help or advice on how to follow up on this gratefully received.

They appear to be refunding six months of payments.  I wonder if their rationale is that July 2023 to July 2024 is "closed", and they're refunding the six monthly payments paid since July 2024?  Without some more explanation, I'm just guessing, though.

Their website does give this address for any queries:

The Refund Group
PO Box 410
Darlington
DL98 1TL

I suggest you write to them setting out the circumstances and asking that they confirm the refund has been applied correctly.

sheramber

From my reading of the tv licence website you can only get a refund if the licence has not expired. 

It is possible for  an address to need two licences e.g  for a lodger., so two licences for the same address  would not stand out.

details of how refund is worked out here

https://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/faqs/FAQ14

Jenni_D

(From memory - as we started paying the licence by DD too many years ago to remember) TVL paid by DD is effectively on the basis of 6 months in advance. So a payment in January 2025 is effectively to cover July 2025. Thus when you stop paying for the licence then the maximum refund you're entitled to is 6 months worth.