TV licence visit officer today. 23 Jan 2008 (merged threads)

moonrakerz

Tori_Bellatrix wrote: »

I ordered a portable DVD player and a new video from Littlewoods ... A few weeks later I received letters from TVLA saying that they knew I had purchased such equipment from Littlewoods and that I must now purchase a TV Licence.

Further to my post #76, you don't need a licence to be in possession of those items either !

moonrakerz

jamesd wrote: »

If an enforcement officer does knock on your door, you could ask them to wait while you draft a note withdrawing their common law right to enter your property. Then you might get peace from future visits.

Note that the BBC freedom of information people say that where there is reason to believe that a crime has been committed, other means will then be used. I assume that this would include the possibility of detection equipment,

In the event that a magistrate somehow grants a warrant anyway, you could always decline access to the person seeking entry. They will probably then seek police assistance, which you should freely comply with. No reason to cooperate with people who are harassing you.

Stopping the letters seems impossible. It appears that you have to accept the invasion of your privacy of letting a stranger into your home at a time of their choosing to do that and even then it won't last long. Seems better just to withdraw the right of access presumption and accept the regular letter harassment.


The above is only intended for those who do not require a TV license.

An "enforcement officer" has NO right of entry to your property . He has "implied right of access" to come and ring your door bell. If you tell him to leave your property - he must - you do not have to answer any questions from him.
(I have "banned" anyone from TVLA from setting foot on my property, they have acknowledged this in a letter to my MP in response to my complaint about TVLA to him.)

"Detection equipment" evidence is not admissible in Court.

It is unlikely that a Magistrate would grant a Warrant just because an "enforcement officer" thinks you might be watching without a licence, he must produce evidence.

"The above is only intended for those who do not require a TV license" !!

strongboes

Hi to all,

You can send any letters you get off them back and state you have no tv, then state that you will charge them £25 for every further letter they send and that if they do send any more then they are agreeing to your terms and conditions and accept that is the charge,

There is a website somewhere which had 100's of examples of this tv license harassment and how to make money out of it.

Regards

moonrakerz

strongboes wrote: »

There is a website somewhere which had 100's of examples of this tv license harassment and how to make money out of it.

Regards

http://www.marmalade.net/lime/

jamesd

moonrakerz, the enforcement officer and everyone else going about their lawful business has an implied right of entry to the part of your property from the edge of your garden, front gate or wherever else the boundary is to get to your front door. But as you note, this does not include any right at all to enter the building (your part of it if it's multiple occupancy) unless a warrant has been granted.

I've clarified my own post since you're right that someone could take property to mean the building, not only the land.

If anyone wants to read this from the BBC: "TV Licensing officers, as with any other person going about their lawful business, have an implied consent under Common Law to walk up to a person's door and make their presence known. The occupier is not obliged to assist them. If a person advises TV Licensing, in writing, that their officers must not enter on their property, this would normally be honoured unless there was good reason to believe that an offence had been committed, when options such as a search warrant application could be considered. Where there is no good reason to believe that an offence has been committed, TV Licensing would then use other forms of enquiry. TV License officers have no legal right of entry without the occupier's permission, except when a search warrant has been granted".

LindseyandMatthew

Something weird happened here actually once. About 2 years after me and my ex split and he'd moved out I received a letter saying he had failed to turn up for a court appearance. I rang the number and asked why and they said it was for him not having a tv licence at my address. I told them its funny because ever since I have lived here (I lived here on my own first) there has been a tv licence, I always pay dd and even lost a month on it when I first moved in as I bought it clode to the end of the month. I honestly have no idea what they were on about!

katiejones

katiejones wrote: »

Well i found out he sent the letter back - written inside "when you can be bothered to check adressess maybe the licence fee will go down because you won't be wasting paper":rolleyes:

UPDATE : Letter recieved today saying "despite having written to you, still no record of licence in you name (its in mine). if you need to purchase a licence do so immediatly, otherwise your name will be passed to our enforcement officers.:D

wildmandy

What I can't understand is why anyone would give their REAL name and address when buying anything these days. Posts here illustrate that simply buying a DVD for a friend gets TVL on your case, and buying anything else and giving your name and address gets you on a dodgy database/spam post list.

On a related matter, I've always bought my TV licence in the name of Mrs Freeda Blogs. Just wondered if I'm 100% covered by law?

Mandy

Mojisola

wildmandy wrote: »

What I can't understand is why anyone would give their REAL name and address when buying anything these days.

Not everyone does! My parents started getting letters after someone bought a tv from Currys and used their address. They are both over 80 so don't need a licence.

Later on, in addition to the licencing letters, they started getting more from Currys trying to sell an extended warranty.

davidlizard

As I understand it, there are a limited number of TV detector vans (<100) which are capable of determining which channel you are watching. Working in electronics R&D myself, I find it totally plausible that such technology exists, however the TVLA/BBC keep the detection mechanism a closely guarded secret (requests for technical info under the Freedom of Information Act have the exemption clause invoked) - after all, once the detection mechanism is known a countermeasure could be developed and marketed making the vans ineffective.

However, our court system will not convict anyone without evidence, and evidence must be made available to both the prosecution and defence, and therefore into the public domain. As the TVLA/BBC are unwilling to give the technical details of the detection methods, then this evidence cannot be used to prosecute. (FOI act shows 0 prosecutions resulting from detection vans in 2006 - after all, if how speed cameras work were a closely guarded secret then they too could not be used for prosecution).

In my opinion, the vans are really more for propaganda - park one up in an estate with a high number of non licenced properties to chivvy people into paying up.

Re an earlier point about needing a licence to listen to the radio - a licence is often required to play music in public (called a PPL or PRS licence I do believe which is intended to reward the artist/producer/etc), but this is nothing whatsoever to do with the TVLA. My gym has to have such a licence to be able to play CDs and the radio whilst we work out - you will often see shops etc displaying stickers on doors to this effect. Its covered by the bit of law that affects copyright and patents.