TV licensing threatening letters

[Crankarm]

Received a 3rd nasty letter from TV licensing this morning demanding I pay up and that one of their teams are now investigating me.

YOU ARE HEREBY GIVEN OFFICIAL NOTICE

THIS PROPERTY IS CURRENTLY UNDER INVESTIGATION

Dear Yada Yada,

Your address has been identified on our databse as being unlicenced, despite having been sent a licence expiry notice and an overdue notice.

It is my duty to inform you that if you are continuing to watch or record television programmes without a licence at this property:

• You are breaking the law
• You are risking criminal prosecution in your local court
• You could face a fine up to £1,000

To decide whether legal proceedings should be taken against you, your case has been referred to our Investigation Unit.

Our Enforcement Officers willl soon be auhtorised to visit your property and take your statement under the relevant criminal law.

Of course, if your TV Licence renewal payment has crossed in the post with this warning, you need take no further action. Or if you no longer watch or record TV at this address, please let us know by calling 0844 800 6730.

Otherwise you must renew your TV Licence immediately: www.tvlicencing.co.uk or call 0844 800 6730.

Yours sincerely,

Yada Yada
TV Licencing

A TV licence currently costs £142.50 for colour and £48 for black and white

I can pay by calling the expensive 0844 number they do not say how much it costs per minute or get fined £1000. But I don't watch TV anymore not since my last license expired. Just cannot afford it plus tbh it's all crap or repeats I've seen many times before anyway. I haven't missed it one bit in 2 months. Radio is more fulfilling and sufficient for keeping up with the world coupled of course with coming on here. I've taken out all the aerial leads just in case they come around. My computer isn't connected for TV, no TV card. Should I do anything else? I don't watch programmes on BBC i-player either.

What about watching some of the many videos I've accumulated over the years, not that I watched them when I had a license anyway? I do have some recordings stored on my HD digi box which I made when the TV license was current. Can I watch these if I really feel the need? They are date and time stamped so they were clearly made before my last licence expired, but as I say I haven't watched any TV in the last two months even the recordings I made when I had a license. It's great. Can't believe I spent so much time in front of the TV, although I didn't actually spend hours and hours in reality but a fair amount of time nonetheless. Instead I spend hour after hour on the computer on here except when I am riding my bike .

The only downside in removing the aerial leads and booster unit has been that I cannot now get a signal and therefore listen to digital radio from the HD digibox through my sound system. Oh well. Maybe when I am more flush I might consider re-subscribing for a TV license but tbh I now see watching TV as a waste of time. Listening to radio enables one to multi task as I am doing now. I looked at getting a radio only digital aerial for the Digi box but couldn't find one.

The TV is worthless as it's an old CRT small screen so not much point selling and anyway if I feel the desperate need to watch videos or DVDs I will need it at some point.

Should I prepare an overnightbag and toothbrush?

Do these people actually have to catch one in the act of watching or recording programmes in the TV listings or can they just come around put two and two together and make 5 even though you haven't been watching and you've disabled the equipment ie removed the aerial leads so you can't receive anything?

 

[wafflycat]

Just write to them telling them you ditched the TV and no longer watch TV. Simples.

 

[Crankarm]

Just write to them telling them you ditched the TV and no longer watch TV. Simples.

WC That simples ?

But they still say they come around to 'inspect'. I don't want to 'ditch' the TV itself as a) it's not very environmentally friendly and in the future when funds allow I may re-subscribe. You don't need a license for just having a TV whether you use it or not do you? The blurb on the TV license doesn't say this only if 'you are watching or recording TV programmes as they are broadcast'. It's a CRT analogue TV so will soon be totally redundant anyway.

 

[Dayvo]

But they still say they come around to 'inspect'.

Just say "What is it that you don't fukkin' understand about 'I don't have a fukkin' TV?'" That might work!

 

[Hilldodger]

WC That simples ?

But they still say they come around to 'inspect'.

You don't have to let them in and if they can't prove you're watching/recording tv there's nothing they can do.

They are a private company with limited power and rely on threatening people. Tell um to bog off.

 

[Crankarm]

Just say "What is it that you don't fukkin' understand about 'I don't have a fukkin' TV?'" That might work!

Maybe Dayvo, just maybe .

Did it work for you and in Norway?

 

[Norm]

My understanding is that you need a licence if you watch or record from live TV. You don't need a licence to watch stuff on the iPlayer-type services (as long as you don't watch live TV) and you can watch recordings and listen to live radio.

But I fecking hate the tone of the letter, the assumption of guilt, the sheer incredulity that someone can exist without a TV to watch. It's kinda medieval, isn't it.

 

[Dayvo]

When I lived on my own in Stockholm and didn't have a TV, and after moving to a new address, the authorities contacted me once by post asking if either I had a TV or if I was going to buy a licence for it.

I replied to them and said I wasn't going to be watching TV at all (which was true) and therefore wasn't going to be needing a TV licence.

They must have understood exactly what I wrote, because they never contacted me again!

 

[wafflycat]

Maybe Dayvo, just maybe .

Did it work for you and in Norway?

Getting hugely stroppy with them worked for me in Cambridgeshire...

 

[Dan B]

Here's the thread from last time: http://www.cyclechat.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=40444

After three or four years without, I'm thinking about getting one again - chiefly to keep the wife
[*] happy, though. But I have to say, given the obnoxious tactics of the TVLA it's really going to be a struggle to "give in" and hand money to them. I'd far rather there was some way of obtaining a licence that couldn't be construed as rewarding their bully boy behaviour


[*] OK, fiancee. Wife as of 11th November

 

[swee'pea99]

WC That simples :-?? Yes. I did it. It worked.

But they still say they come around to 'inspect'. If they do, tell them to go away (vocabulary optional). I don't want to 'ditch' the TV itself as a) it's not very environmentally friendly and in the future when funds allow I may re-subscribe. You don't need a license for just having a TV whether you use it or not do you? The blurb on the TV license doesn't say this only if 'you are watching or recording TV programmes as they are broadcast'. It's a CRT analogue TV so will soon be totally redundant anyway.

If you don't watch tv, you don't need a license, end of story.

 

[wafflycat]

WC That simples ?

But they still say they come around to 'inspect'. I don't want to 'ditch' the TV itself as a) it's not very environmentally friendly and in the future when funds allow I may re-subscribe. You don't need a license for just having a TV whether you use it or not do you? The blurb on the TV license doesn't say this only if 'you are watching or recording TV programmes as they are broadcast'. It's a CRT analogue TV so will soon be totally redundant anyway.

As much as I am a fan of the BBC, the TV licence people are the very lowest of the low. Lower than that stinking dog turd on the sole of the shoe. They have used this intimidatory tone for years and years. Others here have told you about the ins&outs of what requires a licence. Basically if you have one that is capable of receiving a TV programme, you need a licence. If you are not requiring of one, tell the TV lience people to go away. If they still insist on getting stroppy, then get stroppy back.

 

[Crankarm]

My understanding is that you need a licence if you watch or record from live TV. You don't need a licence to watch stuff on the iPlayer-type services (as long as you don't watch live TV) and you can watch recordings and listen to live radio.

But I fecking hate the tone of the letter, the assumption of guilt, the sheer incredulity that someone can exist without a TV to watch. It's kinda medieval, isn't it.

It's persecution that's what it is. Why don't they have a box on the form you can tick and take to the local Post Office as with a SORN declaration for vehicle licencing or return the form via freepost envelope? Why isn't their number a free phone or 0845 number instead of 0844?

 

[Archie_tect]

I think if you use the radio but not TV you will still need a radio license which is normally just bundled in with the TV license....you might still be able to get one from the post Office.

Still having a TV in your house but not having a fixed aerial might not deter them as they'll claim you could still have a portable aerial. I'd ring up the Citizen's Advice Bureau, or the Trading Standards people at your council, for chapter and verse of your rights.

 

[slowmotion]

You do not need a licence if you own a TV. You only need one to watch live or "nearly live" broadcasts. Here is a useful website on this topic...

http://www.televisionlicence.info/

I went through a 12 month period when 15 letters similar to yours were sent to my office. I completely ignored them all, and resisted the temptation to send very rude replies ( not easy). They stopped coming