Treatening Letters

[T Bourne]

Wow, do you need to pay for a licence to watch TV in your residence in the UK? I personally don't have TV (there's only garbage shows and leftwing news on it anyway) but here in Australia TV is free to air unless you want digital like Foxtel or something else, I don't even know what they're all called.

 

[Tim W]

No TV since 1982 (?)
Get letters every couple of weeks
Phoned and written plenty of times

Need something to light the fire with though

 

[JJT]

I don't think 145 is too bad a value for the what you get. Yes there is some crap but that have too try and please everyone, and there are some good progress made. BBC4 have some good documentarys. Also I HATE adverts on the other channels.

Yes it does annoy me when you get snotty letters accusing you of doing something wrong when you haven't, but how else are they going to get people who haven't paid to pay? If they just ask nicely then leave it at that, no one would pay.

 

[Gong Farmer]

Clearly someone's records are at fault.

Their records are not at fault, they tell them no TV at that address but they still try it on. We have the same, I was told if we make the declaration they will leave us alone for two years. Just had to do it again six months after the last time.

I miss iPlayer, I must admit but still wouldn't want to give them the pleasure.

 

[Dry Rot]

I ve to call them tomorrow, I thought that over 75 did not have to pay, but they keep on sending treathening letters to my mum. Apparently there is an over 75 licence now, does that mean she ll ve to still pay, eventhough she does not even watch the curse thing? Man I hate these overpayed bafoons
Plus she is all paid up untill March. There will be blood tomorrow

I have to have a TV licence (over 75) and it has to be applied for, but it's free.

Look on the bright side, if they weren't paid to send out the letters and tour the country in their little vans, they'd be on the dole paid out of taxation anyway.

The word soon gets around that they are on the snoop in rural areas. I gather Northern Ireland is 'bad' for non-payers, but don't see why. Maybe they have a better bush telegraph?

As my mother would have said, "£145 is a lot of money if you don't have it"... and a lot don't these days.

 

[TheTallGuy]

I had big issues with them over my uncle's place. Essentially it was unoccupied for six years due to various legal issues & so had no need for a license & tvl were told this on a number of occasions, but still they kept sending the letters. The thing that irked me the most was that they were presenting themselves as a statutory body with powers of prosecution and were citing PACE which is irrelevant as the tv license is a civil matter - not a criminal one. Tvl is run by a private company (Capita) who get a cut from the license fee and so it's in their interest to bully folk into buying licenses. It's worth remembering that Capita have no legal powers of investigation, so you don't have to give them any information - not even your name - and without a name they can't get a court summons issued! They have no legal powers of entry either so in the event of someone turning up (most unlikely) tell them to come back with a court order or warrant.

 

[Timbo]

Love this;
http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/faqs/FAQ73

What planet are they on?!!!

 

[TheTallGuy]

The detector vans are virtually useless now as modern TVs don't tend to emitt sufficiently traceable signals that have any relation to what the source of the picture is. In reality, prosecution predominantly relies on witness evidence which they wouldn't have if folk didn't let them in the doors - or admit anything to tvl.

 

[Paddington]

When we moved here years ago we used to receive two licence demands, one had the correct postcode and the other, which is the one the council use for our council tax had an incorrect postcode differing by one letter. We continued to ignore the incorrect one for several years until they stopped sending them, though still paid the licence fee for the correct one. Often wonder what would have happened if we'd ignored both ?

 

[Tarw Coch]

Had trouble with these lot myself on a property in doing up, they send the threatening letter so you ring them up and tell them it's uninhabitable. It gets them off your back for a while then it starts again. I have rang them 3 times but made up my mind I won't be telling them again, if they won't take my word for it they can waste their own resources chasing it.

 

[jamj]

Couple of years ago I phoned to tell them we had no TVs. I said I had no intention of getting one and if I did would get the license.
Few days later i got a phone call offering me a good deal on TV set!
Wish I had led them on.....

Have now started getting letters which I put in the bin.
It is harassment. Some of the implied wording about "are you ready for a court case", etc is disgraceful.

 

[7610 super q]

I tell them I live in an old peoples care home. Not a million miles from the truth.......

 

[quavers]

phoning them or sending a letter makes no difference , tenant left end of july and the warning letters came with in weeks , sent letter sating cottage was empty , letters still came and finally a visit after about six weeks that they believed us that the cottage was empty . had the same in the past letters , letters and more letters i tell them once and now just leave it.

 

[Y Fan Wen]

I have had a letter threatening a visit from, 'Our Garndolbenmaen Enforcement Team'.
They haven't been, and I haven't told them that it is a 20 minute walk to the property which has no services and only half a roof.

 

[Alicecow]

Send the letter back unopened with "Not known at this address" written on it. They have to pay the return postage then. Tends to stop them a bit quicker, depending who you are dealing with.

 

[WASP]

I've had the full works likewise - currently doing a house up and they seem convinced that there must be a private cinema or something there even though its not habitable.
Got to the stage of a court letter and one of their chappies turn up on the doorstep although i've filled in the online form countless times
I really don't get what the point of their online form is if they simply don't believe what you put

 

[JP1]

If I wrote a computer generated letter to you (and thousands of other people) implying you were a criminal and that you were about to be dragged off to court to answer for your 'crimes', do you think you might be slightly miffed at me?

TV licencing basically assume any premises without a licence are criminals, because 'everyone is watching TV'. This might have been a reasonable balance of probability assumption 20 years or more ago, not today, thanks to the internet, yet they still persist in calling innocent people criminals, and writing letters that are specifically designed to harass and frighten people who perhaps don't know the law very well.

If I did the same to you you could get me arrested (and convicted) for harassment.

That's what some official does every year with the sheep census even though they already have all the ARAMS data etc etc

 

[Dry Rot]

My neighbour was going out and met the detector van on the road. He stuck his head of the car widnow and told them, "Tell my wife I've put the TV licence behind the clock on the mantelpiece".

When he got home that evening, his wife was most excited and impressed. "Those detector thingies can even point to the TV licence. They knew ours was behind the clock in the kitchen!"
.

 

[NZDan]

Normally these letters have been going straight into the bin. I opened this one becasue it had a bit more red on it. As I said, let them waste their time. I actually believe that BBC squander license fee payers' money, and the license should be abolished and the wasters paid by some other way. I hardly watch any telly at home, never mind at work! It just demonstrates their mind set if they think you can watch telly and work.

The License was abolished in NZ many years ago. A group was formed and ran nation wide newspaper Ads telling everyone not to pay their license, 80% of people refused to pay and the whole system was dropped.

 

[womble8350]

I have been through all of this I rented a farm with a vacant house. To start with I would ring them to let them know it was empty and was told the stop onlylasts six months then sure enough the letters start again. After a few years I got bored of phoning them so just ignored the letters. They follow a similar patter of first a gentle reminder to full court action. What I wanted to know was who were they going to take to court in an empty house? Once they have got to the most threatening you get a period of no letters then they start again. The best was when the house was fully scaffolded with no roof and floors and we must have had a visit from a enforment officer as left pinned to the door was a noticed telling me of the impending summons that would be served. WTF who did they think was living there? Anyway I still await though just who they were going to prosecut is still a mystery.