Do I need to inform that I don't need a TV licence?

rowan222

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81944928#Comment_81944928

"I'm in the position where BBC/TVL don't know who lives at my address and never have. That's the best possible scenario and I wouldn't want to spoil that by doing NLN."

As I previously said you dont have to disclose your personal info when filling in a NLN.

The only information they have is the street address

Cornucopia

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81945182#Comment_81945182

Don't they ask for your name and email address?

edit: Yes, they do. Also your phone number.

rowan222

Yes and I put either Legal Resident/Occupier or Home Owner in the name field. You know like marketing mail shots where they dont know who lived there. And I use a bogus email. They have no need to know my name its none of their business!

Cornucopia

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81945209#Comment_81945209

That could definitely work.

I'm not sure anymore whether that is preferable to doing nothing, but it's certainly an option. One advantage is that it undermines some of the conditions attached to NLN which relate to a identifiable person.

matelodave

Just send it back with RTS in big letters across the front, so it costs them for the return.

That's what I do with unsolicited rubbish that comes through my letterbox. A small victory but very satisfying.

However I did that with some marketing rubbish from my credit card company and they cancelled the card as they thought I'd moved away or died 🙄

JSmithy45AD

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81946450#Comment_81946450

I believe that any returned mail to the licensing people simply gets detroyed by the royal mail.

sheslookinhot

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81944582#Comment_81944582

Those two questions you quote are relative to the address the NLN has been posted to, not if anyone is on holiday hotels etc.. Generally the questions are fine.

Cornucopia

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81946907#Comment_81946907

The background question is whether in the context of BBC/TVL using generally "tricksy" communications with the Public, this is another example of this.

The more specific observation is that a TV Licence covers a property, and therefore in wording the questions by reference to "you" and your household members, they are already using the wrong context from the outset. I suppose they would argue that accurate wording ("Are TV channels being received in your premises at the same time as they are being broadcast?") might be less intuitive to many people. I could give them that if their communications approach was generally fair and transparent, but it isn't.

All of which is in the context of something that BBC/TVL have imposed upon the Public as something of a whim - it is not statutory, and it does not relate specifically to any of the BBC's general powers.

Nick_C

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81946907#Comment_81946907

Perhaps that is their intention, but that is not what they ask. An organisation established to educate and inform the nation should communicate clearly and unambiguously. Especially in the context of asking you to make a declaration, and threatening you with legal action.

And we are talking about an online form, not something posted to an address.

It would of course be relatively easy for the BBC to include the address in the question, and that would remove any ambiguity.

sheslookinhot

It’s not hard not equate household with address.