Imbeciles from the TV Licensing people......

redddraggon

I keep receiving letters from them saying I am breaking the law if I am viewing TV blah blah blah. But I've got an in date licence. I've even rung them up and they recognise through their systems I've got a licence.

Now today I receive a letter from them containing....

Our Enforcement Division has identified that there is no record of a TV licence at your address, and that you may therefore be watching or recording television programme services without a valid licence. If this case, you are breaking the law

Enforcement Officers have been authorised by us to visit your address in "my address" to interview you under caution in compliance with the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 ...

Can they even do such a thing? As I'm in work every week day and home at my parents at the weekend I doubt they ever even catch me in. What makes it all worse is that I've rung them up in the past and they know I've got a licence (and they even knew the dates it'd expire without me telling them), so why all the letters?

I've actually taped the licence to my TV, so I won't lose it.

Anyone else had any problems with the imbeciles from the TV licensing?

winoneday

I constantly get these letters. I get the feeling they send them regardless of whether you have a licence or not to try to scare those without one into buying one.

I doubt they will stop in the near future, sorry if thats not the answer you were looking for.

redddraggon

winoneday wrote:

I doubt they will stop in the near future, sorry if thats not the answer you were looking for.

I've finished my 12 month placement in 7 weeks, so I'm moving out and then they can send as many letters as they want.

ricadus

And one day people like them will be looking after our biometric data and other "identity" information - make you think, doesn't it?

drewfromrisca

I would send a photocopy of your licence to them explaining the situation as the last thing you need is a court summons for non-payment!

Red Rock

Don't worry about it. I don't have a TV and I've been getting the same letters for the past 10 years and no one has been round to check.

Red Rock

geoff_ss

Just ignore it. We've been receiving threats like that for over 40 years because we don't have a TV licence. Simple reason is that we've never owned a TV. Actually we did cheat once; we borrowed a TV from the family TV shop so we could watch Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon in 1969. I just wish he'd done it at a more reasonable time of day

A couple of years ago we received a very threatening letter using all the 'anything you say will be taken down and used in evidence' type language and we contacted our MP because we felt it was so over the top and the letters stopped for a while. We got one a week or two ago and it went in the bin.

Geoff

bagpusscp

Best way bin em .I know one or to other people who do not own an idot box .They have load of fun with the TV LA .As far as they are concerned every address in the UK should have a licence.{voters role gas water bills they all know if someone is living in a porperty .Bo££ocks to ID cards ...it will not stop anything :evil:

redvee

Took me a month when I moved into my first flat before I told them, same with meter readings for gas & leccy. Now marked for life with TV licence.

SteveR_100Milers

What happens if you have a license and no TV..???? :shock:

killiekosmos

Get revenge!

As a public authority it is governed by the Freedom of Information Act. As them what information they hold about your specific address.

Quote from their web-site:

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) applies to UK public authorities. It provides a right of access to TV Licensing information held by the authority, subject to the exemptions set out in FOIA. It is enforced by an independent Information Commissioner.

From 1 January 2005, public authorities, including the BBC, are obliged to deal with FOIA requests from the public within 20 working days.

If you have a request, please make it in writing or email, clearly stating your name, address and description of the information you require. Please write to:

TV Licensing FOI
PO Box 48339
London W12 7XH

Or email us at foi@tvlicensing.info.

You could also ask things like:

* how many complaints did they get last year,
* what prcedures do they have to maintain their records accurately.....
* how much does it cost to pursue one person, how much is wasted .....

Cunobelin

Call their bluff?

Ask if you can arrange a time and date for the interview, and if they can provide a free solicitor>

redvee

SteveR_100Milers wrote:

What happens if you have a license and no TV..???? :shock:

You're wasting £139 you could be spending on bike bling etc.

OffTheBackAdam

Tell them you're writing to Watchdog or similar, it might shale them from their comatose "The computer says so, so it's so" attitude.

krakow

The TV Licensing Authority are one of my pet hates, as I similarly regularly received their overtly accusatory and hyperbolic threatening letters despite not having owned a TV since I left home over 8 years ago. I recently moved and so far have had a quiet time of it in my new place, but sadly my sister bought a TV while she lived here, along with a license, and they're sure to start hounding me as soon as that runs out, despite her having moved out months ago. I long for them to actually come round as they are forever threatening to do.

Eat My Dust

SteveR_100Milers wrote:

What happens if you have a license and no TV..???? :shock:

I believe you still require one if you have a computer in your house.

krakow

Only if you watch TV on it.

Eat My Dust

krakow wrote:

Only if you watch TV on it.

I think as any monitor has the capability of receiving a TV signal, you are still required to have a license. I think it's a bit of a grey area but I believe if you watch things like the news or BBCs iPlayer you need a license.

redddraggon

I found out why they were targetting me now. Apparently they had cancelled my licence, when I rang to cancel the direct debit. They now do a stupid thing where you pay for your 12 month licence in 5 monthly installments and then start paying for the next 12 months (7 months ahead of time). As I was only stopping in the flat for 12 months, I only needed to pay the 5 months and rang them up to tell them all this.

Fastforward 3 months, and the letters start coming, I ring them up - "Yeh, it's OK we've got you down as having a licence to the end of May"

Fast forward to yesterday, and the previously mentioned letter came. I ring them (after about 5 or 6 attempts), and apparently "there's good reason why we are pursuing you", apparantly they cancelled my licence after 5 months, but they've reinstated it now.

"Good reason"? Well as I had paid for 12 months I don't think they had good reason, I've got the bank statements to prove I'd paid 5 installments - so I would like to see them get it stick.

I think my statement calling them imbeciles stands......

Eat My Dust wrote:

krakow wrote:

Only if you watch TV on it.

I think as any monitor has the capability of receiving a TV signal, you are still required to have a license. I think it's a bit of a grey area but I believe if you watch things like the news or BBCs iPlayer you need a license.

You don't actually even need a TV licence if you only watch, say prerecorded videos (and the have TV untuned and not plugged into a aerial), so you don't need a licence just for the equipment.

My computer monitor actually has a TV tuner built into, but I never used it and didn't need a licence for my second year at uni.

on the road

You only need a TV licence for your computer if your computer has a modulator in it, in other words, a TV card.

Anything that can receive and modulate TV signals needs a licence.

clanton

We get 2 letters every year (no TV and no licence) The first is - we note you don't have a tv licence, please exlapin or pay up. We reply - no TV. They then send another saying ok but we need to check just tio make sure you're not confused about what constitues the need for a tv licence. Then we don't hear from them for another year.

synchronicity

WTF is this thread all about?
I assume it refers to this site - http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk
Is this some kind of a joke? :?

Isn't "free to air TV" supposed to be FREE???

gavintc

synchronicity wrote:

WTF is this thread all about?
I assume it refers to this site - http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk
Is this some kind of a joke? :?

Isn't "free to air TV" supposed to be FREE???

We Brits are actually quite proud of our public service broadcasting the funding of which is found from an rather unique system of licensing television. We pay this annually.

It works and in my opinion is the 'least worst system'.

richardjallen

I worked in television for three years supplying broadcasters with transmission suite automation - systems to play out telly. Since then I have not bought a TV or a licence. Why? For two reasons.

1. I found TV broadcasters to be either megalomaniacs or advert pimps.

2. Some quite high up people I spoke to assured me the BBC would like to move away from TV licensing but government restricts them. Their controller is currently a labour crony and under a torry government would be a torry crony. They are placed there to put the 'right' programmes on air - like house porn. Once viewers are drawn to the BBC the advert based channels will put similar programmes on to attract people back. By doing this the population is subjected to social programming whatever channel they choose. Ever watched daytime telly?

So I don't have a telly. Every year they send me a similar letter and I phone them up and explain I don't have a licence because I don't have a telly. They say they will send someone round to look but they never do.

If someone does come round just waive you licence at them. Better still throw the telly out of the window and free your mind. There is so much more once you stop watching.

Cunobelin

Eat My Dust wrote:

krakow wrote:

Only if you watch TV on it.

I think as any monitor has the capability of receiving a TV signal, you are still required to have a license. I think it's a bit of a grey area but I believe if you watch things like the news or BBCs iPlayer you need a license.

Good old Gordon "squeeze 'em dry" Brown was looking at anything that can receive a signal and play a visual image.

SO if you own a a mobile phone that plays video, a PDA, or even some games machines then you will require a licence!

geoff_ss

Eat My Dust wrote:

krakow wrote:

Only if you watch TV on it.

I think as any monitor has the capability of receiving a TV signal, you are still required to have a license. I think it's a bit of a grey area but I believe if you watch things like the news or BBCs iPlayer you need a license.

That's nonsense. A monitor cannot receive a TV signal any more than a loudspeaker can receive a radio signal. You need a tuned RF (radio frequency stage) a demodulator and all the associated gubbins to receive a radio broadcast which is what the TV receiving licence permits you to do.

With ever faster broadband there may be further issues with receiving streamed or downloaded programmes but, as yet, they haven't been addressed. I did download some of the track champs programmes for later viewing but no licence is required for that. My broadband speed is far too low to watch reasonable quality streamed video.

Geoff

pedylan

Geoff is right.

It's a TV tuner you need a license for hence only PC's with a TV card or external tuner will require a license. Watching streamed TV does not require a license. None of the streamed BBC TV stuff is real time anyway - although radio is.

My son is at uni and got two letters, when he telephoned TVLA they came on strong and asked if he had a laptop, when he said yes they said words to effect "right we're visiting".

I then wrote to state no TV, no PC with TV tuner card. Also, they have no general right of access and certainly can't just turn up, they'd have to have had detector evidence to support right of access. They were implying they had a right, I informed them we were refuting this implied right and no access without supporting evidence would be granted. Also told them I thought their attitude stunk and customer service standards were not observed.

Got a letter of apology. 'til next year i guess.

z000m

i pay monthly but sometimes if say a payment is a few days late, i still get the letter telling me the detective is on his way round. so even though i pay this way if he called within those few days i would still be liable for prosecution. i wouldnt mind if there was something on tv worth watching.

redvee

I pay fortnightly on a friday and if I miss a payment on the friday I'll get a SMS from them on the following tuesday saying I'm overdue.

nolf

Just chuck the letters straight in the bin/file.

I'm a 1st year student in halls, and in our letter room theres a stack of letters from the tv licensing people telling everyone they have to buy a license or face the consequences.
As hardly anyone has a TV no-1 bothers reading them let alone replying.

So we're talking 400/500 people who get these letters, seriously doubt they bother checking up on any of them.

Not that anyone shouldn't buy a TV license....

ricadus

So, in effect these are little more than begging letters that only mugs pay attention to.