TV Licence article Discussion

moonrakerz

alexcq wrote: »

On two occassions I have mistakenly paid for television licenses where the property was already licensed by the landlord.

Are you sure that you don't need a licence, what type of tenancy are you in ?

See:
http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/information/landlords.jsp

alexcq

Yes, I'm quite sure. I've already got the refunds. The point is that TV Licensing is happy to allow this to continue and probably owes tens of millions of pounds of refunds to people in similar positions.

bumlooksbig

We have a TV licence at our main house, but we also have a holiday home where we choose not to have TV. If we feel like watching anything we generally play DVDs on a computer. The computer has Broadband access which we have to have in order to have email access for our work, but we don't use it to watch programmes or downloads and probably wouldn't know how.

We are constantly plagued by extremely nasty letters from the TV licence people, and despite repeatedly telling them that the house is largely unoccupied most of the year, is mainly a holiday home and has no TV receiving equipment, the letters will not stop. I am beginning to resent the amount of time and money it is costing to have to contact them almost every other week. To write costs a stamp, to phone costs even more as it is premium rate.

I dread to think how some people must feel receiving these letters. In any other country this would constitute harassment. Also you are presumed to be guilty of licence evasion. In any other area of law it would be round the other way. It is mostly the money that is spent on these harassment tactics, rather than the quality of the programming itself, which has turned me against the TV licence in principle. Also I note that they word their letters very carefully, attempting to imply that merely by using a mobile phone you require a TV licence. As technology improves, so must they make even more attempts to safeguard their revenue.

The whole thing has become utterly ridiculous and must be scrapped. The technology exists to prove beyond a reasonable doubt those who are truly guilty of licence evasion - why don't they use it? Instead, they continue to target the most vulnerable sections of society with their vile letters, threatening those who can least afford to fight them with fines, imprisonment or worse. If I was a little old lady not yet old enough to qualify for exemption who chose not to have a TV, I think I might be truly frightened by their threats. Because that is what they are.

special_k83

bumlooksbig wrote: »

We have a TV licence at our main house, but we also have a holiday home where we choose not to have TV. If we feel like watching anything we generally play DVDs on a computer. The computer has Broadband access which we have to have in order to have email access for our work, but we don't use it to watch programmes or downloads and probably wouldn't know how.

We are constantly plagued by extremely nasty letters from the TV licence people, and despite repeatedly telling them that the house is largely unoccupied most of the year, is mainly a holiday home and has no TV receiving equipment, the letters will not stop. I am beginning to resent the amount of time and money it is costing to have to contact them almost every other week. To write costs a stamp, to phone costs even more as it is premium rate.

I dread to think how some people must feel receiving these letters. In any other country this would constitute harassment. Also you are presumed to be guilty of licence evasion. In any other area of law it would be round the other way. It is mostly the money that is spent on these harassment tactics, rather than the quality of the programming itself, which has turned me against the TV licence in principle. Also I note that they word their letters very carefully, attempting to imply that merely by using a mobile phone you require a TV licence. As technology improves, so must they make even more attempts to safeguard their revenue.

The whole thing has become utterly ridiculous and must be scrapped. The technology exists to prove beyond a reasonable doubt those who are truly guilty of licence evasion - why don't they use it? Instead, they continue to target the most vulnerable sections of society with their vile letters, threatening those who can least afford to fight them with fines, imprisonment or worse. If I was a little old lady not yet old enough to qualify for exemption who chose not to have a TV, I think I might be truly frightened by their threats. Because that is what they are.

Please save your money and ignore them. If they send an inspector, they will find no TV equipment and will update their databases....but they will still start hounding you 6 months later. You should not need to prove you are innocent.

Nile

Hello alexcq

I've merged your thread with this 'TV Licence article Discussion' thread to keep all the posts together.

Nile

moonrakerz

bumlooksbig wrote: »

We have a TV licence at our main house, but we also have a holiday home where we choose not to have TV. If we feel like watching anything we generally play DVDs on a computer. The computer has Broadband access which we have to have in order to have email access for our work, but we don't use it to watch programmes or downloads and probably wouldn't know how.

We are constantly plagued by extremely nasty letters from the TV licence people, and despite repeatedly telling them that the house is largely unoccupied most of the year, is mainly a holiday home and has no TV receiving equipment, the letters will not stop. I am beginning to resent the amount of time and money it is costing to have to contact them almost every other week. To write costs a stamp, to phone costs even more as it is premium rate.

I dread to think how some people must feel receiving these letters. In any other country this would constitute harassment. Also you are presumed to be guilty of licence evasion. In any other area of law it would be round the other way. It is mostly the money that is spent on these harassment tactics, rather than the quality of the programming itself, which has turned me against the TV licence in principle. Also I note that they word their letters very carefully, attempting to imply that merely by using a mobile phone you require a TV licence. As technology improves, so must they make even more attempts to safeguard their revenue.

The whole thing has become utterly ridiculous and must be scrapped. The technology exists to prove beyond a reasonable doubt those who are truly guilty of licence evasion - why don't they use it? Instead, they continue to target the most vulnerable sections of society with their vile letters, threatening those who can least afford to fight them with fines, imprisonment or worse. If I was a little old lady not yet old enough to qualify for exemption who chose not to have a TV, I think I might be truly frightened by their threats. Because that is what they are.

Write to your MP and complain about these cowboys, I did and my MP wrote to the boss man at TVL. If enough people complain something will eventually happen.

want2bmortgage3

i'm interested to know what they can actually do even if you are watching a tv without a license? how can they prove it? i'm sure i read above that they arent allowed to use the detection thing as evidence and they arent allowed in your home unless you let them? so whats to stop anyone watching tv and just ignoring the threats

special_k83

want2bmortgage3 wrote: »

i'm interested to know what they can actually do even if you are watching a tv without a license? how can they prove it? i'm sure i read above that they arent allowed to use the detection thing as evidence and they arent allowed in your home unless you let them?

Nothing, if you don't let them in they have no evidence. If they have no evidence, they can do nothing. They can use their detection equipment but because they do not want to reveal how it works they will not be willing to use it as evidence in court as they'd have to explain it.

want2bmortgage3 wrote: »

so whats to stop anyone watching tv and just ignoring the threats

Absolutely nothing. It is their bullying tactics that usually get people to cough up.

Disclaimer: I am not encouraging you to watch TV without a licence, I am answering your questions based on my own research into this. The decision of course is yours.

want2bmortgage3

thanks... very interesting, they are certainly not going to bully me into the. the amount of cr*p on the bbc tv and radio these days really makes me not want to give them a thing.

moonrakerz

If you watch any live television - buy a licence. I have utter contempt for the way TV Licensing behave towards law abiding citizens, nearly as much as for those who watch without a licence and sponge off the rest of us !!!!