Don't need Tv License: should I write to them saying I don't need it?

Pennywise

You can write and "hope" they'll leave you alone for a while, but in practice, it doesn't work like that. I have an office and am absolutely plagued by the imbeciles that work in TV licensing for several years. At first, I phoned, but after a year or so of having to phone every couple of months when yet another letter arrived, I gave up and started writing instead. That didn't improve the situation. Now I just send back the letters unopened because I am sick to death of wasting my valuable time and money in contacting them when they clearly ignore you.

"If" you manage to make contact with a human being with a brain who can put a stop on the letters, then all well and good. My experience is that they just ignore you and can't be bothered to tick the box on their system.

I'd actually be delighted for their inspectors to start calling as I would love them to waste their time and money on a fruitless exercise. It's all they deserve if they treat us with contempt.

Tiglet

lic wrote: »

Do you need a TV licence if you receive radio broadcasts?

No. the TV Licensing site (http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/information/index.jsp) says

You need a TV Licence to use any television receiving equipment such as a TV set, set-top boxes, video or DVD recorders, computers or mobile phones to watch or record TV programmes as they are being shown on TV.

If you use a set-top box with a hi-fi system or another device that can only be used to produce sounds and can't display TV programmes, and you don't install or use any other TV receiving equipment, you don't need a TV Licence.

I think the point is that you only need a licence if you are receiving or recording pictures, not sound.

I'm currently trying to give up the evil TV habit (partly to save the cost of a licence), but I still want to use a TV card in my PC to download teletext pages. Does anybody know whether I will need a licence for that?

ukjoel

They have records of every address where a TV is delivered to when it is sold. They partly use these and also send out letters to pretty much every address as they presume all households have a television.

At present the detectors vans can pick up TV signals but I dont think they can pick up signals coming through a PC so you should be ok.

Am not aware of anyone being prosecuted for having a card in their PC and not paying tv license but could be wrong. If it was me I would risk it.

Also considering getting rid of TV but the sods keep putting on new series of Prison break, Shameless, Relocation (I have a thing about Kirsty).

System

98jdougl wrote: »

You HAVE to inform them of any tv/equipment able to receive.

No you don't!

ohmsoft

JCD_Capulet wrote: »

OP, Ring them and tell them the situation. I gave my TV to my next door neighbour in Feb last year, and cancelled my NTL tv subscription. When I called the TV folk they were nothing but fantastic and sent me out a form so I could reclaim part of the fees I'd paid upfront but wouldn't be using


There's no need for that at-all. When you cancel your TV lisence there is a little bit on the slip you're sent out telling you that they may wish in future to pop in on you if they're in the area. I think there's absolutley no problem with that what so ever if you genuinely have no tv in your home. Two minutes of your time and they won't bother you again for a long while. They are being polite to you, so there's no need to show un warrented hostility.

I personally would be very reluctant to let someone in to 'check up' on me even if i'm not hiding anything - its my home, I pay my taxes etc etc so what right does an independant company have to walk in and disturb my right to privicy.....you give a little they'll take alot next we'll be having monthly checks just incase we've comited a crime!

moonrakerz

Tiglet wrote: »

No. the TV Licensing site (http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/information/index.jsp) says
I think the point is that you only need a licence if you are receiving or recording pictures, not sound.

I'm currently trying to give up the evil TV habit (partly to save the cost of a licence), but I still want to use a TV card in my PC to download teletext pages. Does anybody know whether I will need a licence for that?

You DO need a licence to listen to radio on your TV (ie: on Freeview or sat) unless you have some method of feeding the output from your set top box or Sky box directly into an sound amplifier and not a television.
You will also need one for Teletext.

moonrakerz

JCD_Capulet wrote: »

I think there's absolutley no problem with that what so ever if you genuinely have no tv in your home. Two minutes of your time and they won't bother you again for a long while. They are being polite to you, so there's no need to show un warrented hostility.

I would disagree with that. I have been bombarded with threatening letters for over a year because I had no TV licence for a property that I was renovating.

There is NO requirement for me to tell TV Licensing that I do not use a TV, yet I constantly receive threats of Court appearances, visits from "Officers", etc etc.

I have now moved into the property and the TV Licensing site won't transfer the licence from my previous property because "the post code you enter is not that on our records" - despite it being correct AND being the post code on the actual licence!

I have written a letter of complaint to the "signature" on the bottom of all the threatening letters, telling him to stop sending them and that his is NEVER to send one of his staff to my premises (as I am legally entitled to do !). I copied the letter to my MP; this morning I had a copy of a letter from my MP to the Chief Executive of TV Licensing asking why "my constituent is being bombarded with threatening letters".

Does Gordon Brown get threatening letters from the DVLA because he doesn't have a driving licence, do they accuse him of driving up and down the M6 illegally ?

TV Licensing are a bunch of licensed (by the BBC) bullies !

Tiglet

moonrakerz wrote: »

You will also need one for Teletext.

Do you know of anywhere that gives a definitive statement on that? The nearest I could find was this site, which says

The 1949 Act does not define a television receiver, but there is a working definition in s.3 of the Wireless Telegraphy (Television Licence Fees) Regulations (1997):

...such apparatus installed or used for the purpose of receiving television programme services, as defined by section 2(4) of the Broadcasting Act 1990, whether or not the apparatus is installed or used for other purposes.

Finally, section 2(4) of the Broadcasting Act (1990) defines a ``television programme service'' quite widely, to include most terrestrial broadcast, cable and satellite TV service. It does not, however, include text-based broadcasts like teletext.

Although not a government source, he does have an LLB to his name, so this sounds fairly plausible to me. I don't think the TV Licensing site has allowed for the possibility that somebody might want to use a TV but not want to watch TV programmes, so they haven't covered this possibility. (I used to watch TV on my PC but I've now removed the TV software and just left the teletext program).

Alex_of_Swansea

We, along with other friends, don't use the TV to get signals. We use it to watch DVD's. The TV licencing folk are fine with this, and have never visited any of us. I guess they think that anyone who contacts them is likely to be more honest than those who ignore them.

Hapless_2

Alex_of_Swansea wrote: »

We, along with other friends, don't use the TV to get signals. We use it to watch DVD's. The TV licencing folk are fine with this, and have never visited any of us. I guess they think that anyone who contacts them is likely to be more honest than those who ignore them.

same here, 3 yrs and no hassle when we were tv license free, but with tv for DVD's.