View Full Version : TV licensing...
Reid Malenfant
07-09-2010, 19:27
I'm not sure if any people on here are non TV viewers but here goes ;)
As of the end of April this year i declared this household as not needing a TV license simply because i no longer watch or record live TV as it is being broadcast. That is the essence of the law. No aerials are plugged in & i don't watch live TV via the internet - i'm simply not interested fullstop :)
Having bought a new TV slightly after this date (for monitoring purposes only) i received a letter from these idiots stating that Richer sounds had let them know i had bought some TV receiving equipment (as they have to by law). At that point i got back in touch & asked if this address was still noted as "no license required" to which i received an email reply stating that was indeed the case.
I then used there own website against them & told them why i no longer need a license simply because i only watch blu rays, DVDs & videos on all the TVs i own & i invited them to send round someone to inspect this for themselves. I soon received a reply from an actual human being that stated that i'd soon be having a visit from one of their inspection officers as they find that approximately 25% of those that they check actually do need a license :eyebrows:
Well that was quite a few months ago & i'm here 95% of the time, if not more in reality. I know these goons have the power to actually break into your house to do this inspection, which is why i'm asking if anyone else happens to have declared that they don't watch TV etc.
If there is anyone, what were your experiences & how long was it before the goon squad showed up? :doh:
Mark
They DO NOT have the power to break into your house, also you can quite happily refuse them entry if they turn up when your at home.
I've been through this one recently, they kept threatening and bullying even though I (like you) informed them that I only used the TV for gaming and watching DVD's.
It went on till I got sick and had a chat with my solicitor who wrote them a nice letter.
About a fortnight after that I received a letter from TV Licensing saying:
Thankyou for informing us that you do not require a TV License as you only use your TV for gaming and watching DVD's. If this changes in the future, please inform us blah blah.
And it all stopped and I never heard another thing from them.
They make out they have the power to this and that and the other and in reality, they dont.
Dont fall for it. Its a legalised con, why on earth should you pay for something you dont use.
The BBC has had thngs far to good for far too long, thats why they get away with utter dire crap like Eastbloodyenders.
Reid Malenfant
07-09-2010, 19:41
I really should add that all this talk of these people being able to detect exactly where your TV is & what you are watching only applies to old CRT (cathode ray tube) technology. They can detect the RF field given off by the scan coils on the tube & thus what picture you have on your set.
With modern plasma or LCD TVs they can't detect a damn thing, the same goes for LCD or DLP rear projection & any type of front projector (though i'm not 100% sure about RGB CRT projectors which they possibly could).
As it is though i haven't seen a broadcast program since just after last xmas & probably only 20 hours in the previous year :lol:
Reid Malenfant
07-09-2010, 19:46
MarkThey DO NOT have the power to break into your house, also you can quite happily refuse them entry if they turn up when your at home.
About a fortnight after that I received a letter from TV Licensing saying:
Thankyou for informing us that you do not require a TV License as you only use your TV for gaming and watching DVD's. If this changes in the future, please inform us blah blah.
That's slightly different from what i have read, but fair enough ;) Did you know that the local council can break into your house to check for diseased plants? You think i'm kidding? I'm not! :eek:
By the way, they'll be hassling you in two years from when you first informed them of the fact you don't need a license. Check out the TV licensing website if you don't believe me :rolleyes:
I believe you on the council thing with diseased plants, a council is capable of anything that involves great stupidity.
Also, most of the TV detector vans/hand held devices etc was another line of crap they came out with to try to frighten people in to paying up, but was too costly to fully implement, so they used detector vans that didnt and hand held devices that were empty plastic cases.
One of these so called devices was used in a court case as evidence by a defendant, he was accused of watching TV without a license and had been "detected" doing so, the bemused magistrate dismissed the case when said detector proved to be nothing more than a plastic box with a battery, a switch and a couple of LEDs.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/3563646/Time-to-stand-up-to-the-TV-licence-bullies.html
Reid Malenfant
07-09-2010, 20:18
:eek: Reminds me of wheel clampers in certain respects.
So they get paid only if they get you to buy a license? That's well underhand :doh:
I guess the 25% of people that they visit cave into the pressure, well it's not happening here :eyebrows:
Cheers for the link Mart, very interesting reading indeed :rolleyes:
Happy to help.
These scumbags became one of my pet hates when I caught one of them hollerin and shoutin at my (then) 72 year old neighbour who was one of the nicest old ladies you could care to meet and everyone in the street called her Auntie Margret.
She didnt have a telly, but he was still trying to make her sign up for a license.
I'm usually a placid kind of guy, but he left in a hurry.
The Grand Wazoo
08-09-2010, 07:12
Mark
Did you know that the local council can break into your house to check for diseased plants? You think i'm kidding? I'm not!
That statement needs qualifying I think.
My missus would go crazy without her TV..wheras I am going crazy because it's on every night for some pish soaps os even worse X factor shite...I do get permission to watch the odd football match though.
Here's a taste of what you should expect to happen if you decide not to renew your TV license, looks like a load of fun.....
http://www.bbctvlicence.com/
From the link:
We said we'd call... Last chance, avoid £1000 fine.
...At which point I'd invite them in and introduce them to my hammer..... ;)
Marco.
Haselsh1
09-09-2010, 09:06
What the TV licencing folk are actually doing here is tantamount to harrassment and this, in the UK, is a criminal offence.
A few years back I went through the same scenario and kept putting their mail in the bin without opening it. Sure enough an inspector came round to my flat and informed me that even if I was watching DVD's I needed a licence to which I informed him he was lying. I called up their own website on my PC and displayed the relevent page to which he immediately backed down. I then told him I would be sending them a letter removing any future right they had to enter my property. Within two weeks the threatening letters started arriving again. I put them all in the bin...!
Haselsh1
09-09-2010, 09:09
Here's a taste of what you should expect to happen if you decide not to renew your TV license, looks like a load of fun.....
http://www.bbctvlicence.com/
What a fantastic link...!
spendorman
09-09-2010, 09:19
I've had this harassment for many years, told them several times in writing that there is no need for a TV licence in the house. The letters do stop for a while, but always start again.
Some years ago an inspector called at night, I was alone, did not answer the door. I did not want one of these "inspectors" in my house without a witness present.
aquapiranha
09-09-2010, 09:46
I have not had a TV for years. I have only had a few letters, the last on being a few weeks ago asking me to confirm that I still did not need a lisence. I went on line and confirmed that nothing has changed.
I do watch DVD's sometimes on the PC but that is it, the times I see what is on TV when at freinds houses confirms why I don't bother having one. Either you are watching some crappy 'reality' tv programme or adverts.. not for me.
:)
I thought these stories were reserved only for Croatia :).I was wrong...
regards,
Reid Malenfant
09-09-2010, 15:10
Mark
That statement needs qualifying I think.
Trust me i have been trying to find this huge list i found when researching about theTV license ;)
Pot plants without a passport (http://www.saferhouses.co.uk/who-has-power-entry.html) :rolleyes:
The myriad of excuses to breach the privacy of the home include recent rights to look for look for smuggled goods, pot plants without a ‘plant passport’ (2005 Order)
Worse:-
For instance, a concern about hedge sizes causing neighbourly friction prompted a law allowing inspectors to measure a hedge’s height but as this meant they may need to pass through someone’s property, a power of entry was duly created. Concern for the implications this would have against civil liberties were less of a priority than solving disputes about hedges.
I'm still on the case, i'll get there but it's damn scary what excuses people can use & you can't stop them :doh:
AS I understand it the law says that if you have a device capable of receiving and or recording broadcast television transmissions then you require a licence to operate regardless of whether you use the device for that purpose. So a video or DVD recoreder will count as will a screen with a built in digital and/or analogue decoder.
The 'Inspectors' have no power of entry and there has never been a working 'TV Detector', either mounted in a van or handheld.
Many years ago now a friend of mine decided he was sick of receiving letters and visits from TV Licencing. He had a TV but no money and was damned if he was going to pay up.
He wrote them a letter stating that he was the Deputy Director of the African National Congress, that he only used the house when he was in England visiting his sister, and that the letters and visits were becoming a nuisance.
In reply he received a grovelling letter of apology from TVL promising never to bother him again.
And they never did.
Allegedly you can legally refuse to pay your TV licence. As part of its charter the BBC may not receive funds from foreign powers. It does, however, receive funds from the EU to promote the EU. As this is a breach of the charter you can withhold payments until they rectify the breach.
Google it:)
Techno Commander
10-09-2010, 21:42
Since we moved a few montha ago and found the new house didnt have an aerial, I stopped paying the licence fee. For the small amount of programmes I am interested in, I watch them on I player. This is legal licence free viewing, as long as the programme isnt streamed live. :)
AS I understand it the law says that if you have a device capable of receiving and or recording broadcast television transmissions then you require a licence to operate regardless of whether you use the device for that purpose.
Nope.
Though thats what they'd like you to think as it means they get more dosh.
You only need a license to actually watch or record "BROADCAST" material.
You can watch DVD's and play games to your hearts content and not need a license.
Nope.
Though thats what they'd like you to think as it means they get more dosh.
You only need a license to actually watch or record "BROADCAST" material.
You can watch DVD's and play games to your hearts content and not need a license.
Mart
I think you misunderstood what I was saying
Yes you can have a monitor, DVD player and a computer and not need a licence. If you have a DVD or VHS recorder, freeview box or a TV set (as opposed to a monitor) the law requires a licence even if you do not watch or record any broadcast visual signal. The licence is necessary for owning the equipment not for using it.
spendorman
10-09-2010, 22:40
Watching this at the moment, interesting.
http://tv-licensing.blogspot.com/
Techno Commander
10-09-2010, 23:15
I think you will find the devices needs to be "capable" or "in use". Merely possessing them doesnt require a licence.
The Grand Wazoo
10-09-2010, 23:24
Every now & then when we nip back over the hill to our house in Lincolnshire we get there & of course we find a little bit of unsolicited mail (the real stuff has been forwarded to this address for over a year now) and all we find now is the letters from the TV licensing folk.
I have informed them that the house is empty & have a licence for this address. I did that once & I will not waste a single penny or millimetre of shoe leather to tell them again. However, I am staggered at the lengths that they will go to to catch me breaking the law. How much is this costing? How many licence fees have they spent chasing the chance of catching me breaking the law? The tone of the letters nowadays is that I am certainly on an irreversible helter skelter ride towards penal servitude.
I thought that the premise of innocence until proven guilty was still a fundamental building block of our society in this country.
The TV licence is a licence to receive broadcast programmes. This means that if you have any TV equipment that is capable of doing this, you need to have a licence.
Should you choose not to watch broadcast TV, then you have to prove to the TV licencing authority that not only do you not have a TV aerial but that your television does not have tuner, or if it does, it has been disabled (i.e. destroyed. That way those people who use a TV as a computer monitor are covered.
Viewing TV via the internet is, at the moment, a bit of a loop-hole. Currently you do not need a licence to do this but, no doubt, this will change.
Forgive me if I appear to be a bit of a 'jobs worth', it's just that some former collegues of mine have been in a similar position and I have had to explain the law to them. Suffice to say it has worked, and that they are now no longer pestered by TV licencing.
Regards
Mart
I think you misunderstood what I was saying
Yes you can have a monitor, DVD player and a computer and not need a licence. If you have a DVD or VHS recorder, freeview box or a TV set (as opposed to a monitor) the law requires a licence even if you do not watch or record any broadcast visual signal. The licence is necessary for owning the equipment not for using it.
QUOTE Barry
The TV licence is a licence to receive broadcast programmes. This means that if you have any TV equipment that is capable of doing this, you need to have a licence.
Should you choose not to watch broadcast TV, then you have to prove to the TV licencing authority that not only do you not have a TV aerial but that your television does not have tuner, or if it does, it has been disabled (i.e. destroyed. That way those people who use a TV as a computer monitor are covered.
Viewing TV via the internet is, at the moment, a bit of a loop-hole. Currently you do not need a licence to do this but, no doubt, this will change.
Forgive me if I appear to be a bit of a 'jobs worth', it's just that some former collegues of mine have been in a similar position and I have had to explain the law to them. Suffice to say it has worked, and that they are now no longer pestered by TV licencing.
Regards
Sorry guys, but you are both wrong.
Did you not read the part where I said that I have been through this.
You DO NOT need a license to own a TV or any other device that can receive broadcast material.
You DO need a license if you use said equipment to watch or record broadcast material.
You DO NOT have to prove that your not using it to watch or record broadcast material.
The onus is on the Licensing Authority to prove that you are and take subsequent action if they manage to gather that evidence.
Since said Licensing Authority legally has no right of entry, they are pretty reliant on your goodwill or fear of being prosecuted to let them in to your home and show them that you are not commiting any offence.
All you two are repeating is the bullshit thats been pedalled for years by the BBC and its licensing agents to make people keep on handing over the cash.
If you dont beleive me, go and read the info on the TV Licensing website, there are also details held on the Citizens Advice Bureau's websites and there are many other places where this info is freely available.
Copied directly from TV Licensing website and pasted here.
(Notice that they say "use these devices" and not "own these devices")
You need to be covered by a valid TV Licence if you watch or record TV as it's being broadcast. This includes the use of devices such as a computer, laptop, mobile phone or DVD/video recorder.
It costs £145.50 for colour and £49.00 for a black and white TV Licence.
Webpage here:
http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/check-if-you-need-one/
The law states that you need to be covered by a TV Licence if you watch or record television programmes, on any device, as they're being shown on TV. This includes TVs, computers, mobile phones, games consoles, digital boxes and DVD/VHS recorders.
You don't need a licence if you don't use any of these devices to watch or record television programmes as they're being shown on TV - for example, if you use your TV only to watch DVDs or play video games, or you only watch programmes on your computer after they have been shown on TV. If this is the case, please let us know, as this helps us to keep our database up to date and means you won't receive the standard letters we send to unlicensed addresses.
Webpage here:
http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/check/viewtopiccontent.aspx?id=TOP12&iqdocumentid=TOP12&WT.mc_id=r001
The Policy Document (http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/downloads/What-if-tv-licence-is-not-needed/NoLicenceNeeded.pdf)is quite interesting, too.
I heard some rumors about terminating of TV licences here.So, how will we then be charged?
Through increased electricity bills !!
And then it does not matter what device you have at your home :(
regards,
Rare Bird
11-09-2010, 13:00
Buy a narrow boat. :lolsign: Give me one anyday
Buy a narrow boat. :lolsign: Give me one anyday
Come on Andre,not funny.Why?Think about the Big brother for sec.You know George Orwell,1984...and another thing to spoil the weekend (sorry).A few more years and money will not exist any more.Plastic only.Trust me (I'm in banking business).You will not longer be able to sell secondhand amplifier without paying taxes for example.That will be total control.And only missing thing is a chip in the neck :(.
Speaking of a narrow boat,I already have one.
What kind of a resident of the city on three rivers would I be without a boat ? :lolsign:
http://i837.photobucket.com/albums/zz292/pepa131/boat.jpg
These boat is used mainly for fishing (by my father).If you ever will be in my area,boat is yours (for using of course) ;)I have a small engine too, 4,5 HP.So you don't have to paddle.
regards,
Sorry guys, but you are both wrong.
Did you not read the part where I said that I have been through this. Yes I did, and so have I
You DO NOT need a license to own a TV or any other device that can receive broadcast material. I never said you had to have a licence to own a TV or any other broadcast receiving equipment. You need a licence to use it to receive real-time transmissions. Similarly, you can own a car without needing a driving licence, road fund tax or insurance, yet legally you need all three to drive the car on a public highway.
You DO need a license if you use said equipment to watch or record broadcast material. Precisely what I said
You DO NOT have to prove that your not using it to watch or record broadcast material. You have to give reasons why you no longer need a licence.
The onus is on the Licensing Authority to prove that you are and take subsequent action if they manage to gather that evidence.
Since said Licensing Authority legally has no right of entry, they are pretty reliant on your goodwill or fear of being prosecuted to let them in to your home and show them that you are not commiting any offence. I never said they do, and neither do the TV Licensing Authority.
All you two are repeating is the bullshit thats been pedalled for years by the BBC and its licensing agents to make people keep on handing over the cash. I resent being accused of 'repeating bullshit'. As I have said, I too have been there (in the sense of advising my collegues who no longer needed a licence, and prevented them from receiving additional hassle and letters).
If you dont believe me, go and read the info on the TV Licensing website, there are also details held on the Citizens Advice Bureau's websites and there are many other places where this info is freely available. All I did was read the conditions printed on the back of my TV licence.
.
The TV licence is a licence to receive broadcast programmes. This means that if you have any TV equipment that is capable of doing this, you need to have a licence.
Barry
Forgive me for getting hold of the wrong end of the stick, but if you read what you wrote in your post, you'll see why I did.
Barry
Forgive me for getting hold of the wrong end of the stick, but if you read what you wrote in your post, you'll see why I did.
Understood Mart,
What I wrote was ambiguous: by 'have', I meant to say 'use'.
Regards
anthonyTD
13-09-2010, 09:40
this is all very interesting, and its great to see some of you guys that have taken them on and won!
they are bullies of the highest order, i hope that one day this country will wake up and say we are not having this anymore, get your revenue for the shite your pedaling from somewhere else!
meanwhile, i will still be paying for my licence!:lol:
A...
spendorman
13-09-2010, 09:47
My mother (aged 99 1/2 years, 1/2, a year is important at this age) gets a free TV license and is enjoying watching TV at this very moment, Judge Judy.
anthonyTD
13-09-2010, 10:50
My mother (aged 99 1/2 years, 1/2, a year is important at this age) gets a free TV license and is enjoying watching TV at this very moment, Judge Judy.
hi paul,
seems i have at least that in common with your mam,:eyebrows: judge judy's great!:)
anthony,TD...
My mother (aged 99 1/2 years, 1/2, a year is important at this age) gets a free TV license and is enjoying watching TV at this very moment, Judge Judy.
Nice one, Paul. That's a fantastic age for your mum - she'll be getting her letter from the Queen soon! :)
We don't pay for a TV licence either, as Del's father (currently 87) lives with us on a permanent basis. We're both his full-time carers.
Does your mum live with you then or are you visiting her? Not enough people these days look after their elderly parents (or even bother visiting them), which I think is scandalous, so good on you!
Marco.
Reid Malenfant
13-09-2010, 14:38
Does your mum live with you then or are you visiting her? Not enough people these days look after their elderly parents (or even bother visiting them), which I think is scandalous, so good on you!
Marco.
This is the precise reason why i never needed to bother purchasing a TV license until this year :doh: Mother unfortunately passed away in February at the age of 80 & she had a free TV license from the age of 75 (i believe that's correct). I was still licensed until this ran out at the end of May? as it covered myself living here until it expired.
As i watched so little TV i figured i might as well stop altogether, the last program i watched was the second half of the Flashforward series & previous to that the first half :lol:
One series of programs in the best part of half a year really isn't worth whatever the license fee actually happens to be, somewhere about £145 from what i gather :rolleyes:
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