TV Licence Super Thread

  • Thread starter Thread starter Ken
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What do you think is macho about that? Strange.
And it really does take longer than 30 seconds.

Not for the majority of people it doesn't. 4 years in my current house and I've filled in the online form twice. Got a confirmation email both times and haven't received a single 'visit' or any chaser Letters other than the single one I received to remind me I needed to fill in the online form again as the 2 years was up.
 
Something that I'm not really understanding is how do TVL/capita get search warrants based on little more than thinking you might be using a tv unlawfully?

Is it peoples ignorance giving the 'officers' information?

As someone who has little interest in tv, I'll likely not bother with a license in future but don't want to be jumping through hoops to prove my innocence

For the vast majority of people who fill the online form in it just works. The challenge is that the people who do not inform the TVL people that they have no need for a TVL so constantly get visited, and the people that do complete the form but still (incorrectly) get visited have a disproportionately loud voice on the internet. So it seems that there are a high percentage of people who are being harassed when in actual fact they are probably in the minority.

I complete the online form in and have never had a visit. This is also true for everyone I know personally who does not require a TVL.

I have no doubt Robj20 will receive visits or many letters. However that is a result of his own making not because the system is inherently flawed. When Robj20 does receive these visits or letters he will blame the corrupt system and refuse to accept that had he completed the 'official' form online he would have most likely avoided all the agro and thus the cycle repeats itself.
 
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From some FOIA for how many warrants were handed out. It was declined, which seems dodgy, as they claimed releasing the number of warrants could hinder the process of future warrants. :rolleyes:

"TV Licensing’s policy on search warrants has been made public in the past. Search warrants are
only applied for in cases where the evidence means that it is extremely likely that a television is in
use. TV Licensing is open regarding its policy that it will only apply for a search warrant as a last
resort. Search warrant applications are considered scrupulously before they go forward to the
court and they are treated very much as a last resort. As a matter of law a search warrant cannot
be granted unless there are reasonable grounds for the application."

From what I recall in previous court FOIA's, they were merely told that a tv could be seen through the window & they got a warrant on that. Dodgy, seeing as it could be dvd/recorded shows etc.

There's one bloke that protests tvlicence & has a site all about it. He was at court one day witnessing all the public that were getting done for tvlicence, when the judge pushed through a warrant to search his property, despite no proof being handed in. Guess if you bug the judge enough, they'll let things slide.

Reasonable suspicion does not mean concrete evidence of guilt, but in the context of suspected TV License evasion it is likely to mean a report by a neighbour that you are watching TV without a licence or a visiting officer hearing or seeing a BBC iPlayer programme being played in the background. In my opinion something as general as seeing a TV screen or hearing a TV in operation (without being able to determine that live television rather than a DVD is being watched) is not sufficient to justify reasonable suspicion.

Seems dodgy that they could use hear-say from a neighbour, as that again's no proof of watching live tv.
 
For the vast majority of people who fill the online form in it just works. The challenge is that the people who do not inform the TVL people that they have no need for a TVL so constantly get visited, and the people that do complete the form but still (incorrectly) get visited have a disproportionately loud voice on the internet. So it seems that there are a high percentage of people who are being harassed when in actual fact they are probably in the minority.

I complete the online form in and have never had a visit. This is also true for everyone I know personally who does not require a TVL.
Add to this, I have never filled in anything and yet have not had a visit in the whole 13 years which i have lived in my own houses. I have always lived in rural houses, though. Perhaps they cant be bothered to come out to me :p
 
For the vast majority of people who fill the online form in it just works. The challenge is that the people who do not inform the TVL people that they have no need for a TVL so constantly get visited, and the people that do complete the form but still (incorrectly) get visited have a disproportionately loud voice on the internet. So it seems that there are a high percentage of people who are being harassed when in actual fact they are probably in the minority.

I complete the online form in and have never had a visit. This is also true for everyone I know personally who does not require a TVL.

I have no doubt Robj20 will receive visits or many letters. However that is a result of his own making not because the system is inherently flawed. When Robj20 does receive these visits or letters he will blame the corrupt system and refuse to accept that had he completed the 'official' form online he would have most likely avoided all the agro and thus the cycle repeats itself.

Add to this, I have never filled in anything and yet have not had a visit in the whole 13 years which i have lived in my own houses. I have always lived in rural houses, though. Perhaps they cant be bothered to come out to me :p

Just seems like pot luck whichever way you do it, could be hassled either way, could be fine

I agree people complaining online do make it seem bigger than it is

I cringe at most of the videos on YouTube, especially the ones who chase the guy down the road to film them :p

They never get search warrants for watching a TV. And it's illegally, not unlawfully.

I've seen a couple of posts that claim they got a warrant through a TVL guy seeing a tv on through the window, one that stood out said he was accused of watching live football yet the guy said he was playing fifa, could be a load of rubbish but that's why I wondered
 
Just seems like pot luck whichever way you do it, could be hassled either way, could be fine

I agree people complaining online do make it seem bigger than it is

I don’t know why people seem to care, so what if you get a letter once per month, I get far worse from dominos or boden :p
 
I don’t know why people seem to care, so what if you get a letter once per month, I get far worse from dominos or boden :p
dominos send you threatening letters and letters that make out they are from courts etc?
this is an issue for anyone who doesn't know what tv licensing is doing and what their own rights are.
If it wasn't a tax and was a private company instead they would have been forced to stop years ago for harassment, intimidation and impersonation.
 
The letters are nonsense, they simply threaten a visit and are just a cycle of templates. You get the same ones over and over in the same order.

There honestly isn’t anything particularly threatening about them. The funniest thing which gives away just how standard the templates are, is the fact that it says to ignore the letter if you already have a license :p
 
“For the vast majority of people who fill the online form in it just works.”
I don’t believe that. Perhaps for the majority but not vast majority. There are too many people who do everything correctly and still run into problems for it to be vast majority. If it was vast majority the blogs, videos and forums of people without problems wouldn’t be as large as it is. Part of it depends which area you are in as they target certain areas more then others.
 
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I don’t believe that. Perhaps for the majority but not vast majority. There are too many people who do everything correctly and still run into problems for it to be vast majority. If it was vast majority the blogs, videos and forums of people without problems wouldn’t be as large as it is. Part of it depends which area you are in as they target certain areas more then others.

According to google there are approximately 27.1 million households in the U.K. As of 2016.

According to the TVL website the number of TVLs issued in 2014/2015 was 25.5 million and has been increasing by approximately 80-100k per year for the previous 3-4 years. Now whilst there isn't any data for 2015/2016 let's assume all things being equal, the rate of increase has remained static so in 2015/2016 the number of TVLs issued increased to 25.6 million.

Also according to the TVL website approximately 316k premises hold more than 1 TVL. So this brings the number of 'unique' premises which hold an active TVL down to 25.3 million (and we aren't even taking into account that more than 1 does not equal 2. So a premise could hold 3, 4, 6 of even a dozen TVLs)

Now baring in mind that a premise could be a workplace, shop, sports centre, gym etc etc etc OR a household the number of households which hold a TVL must equal less than 25.3 million, unfortunately there is no data I can find which specifically references households only so this is an unknown qualitity. However even without this data there are at least 1.8 million households which currently do not have a TVL.

So remind me how many unique blogs, videos and forum posts are you seeing from people who 'have problems'. Now compare that to the figure which we know must be at least 1.8 million households without a TVL.
 
According to google there are approximately 27.1 million households in the U.K. As of 2016.

According to the TVL website the number of TVLs issued in 2014/2015 was 25.5 million and has been increasing by approximately 80-100k per year for the previous 3-4 years. Now whilst there isn't any data for 2015/2016 let's assume all things being equal, the rate of increase has remained static so in 2015/2016 the number of TVLs issued increased to 25.6 million.

Also according to the TVL website approximately 316k premises hold more than 1 TVL. So this brings the number of 'unique' premises which hold an active TVL down to 25.3 million (and we aren't even taking into account that more than 1 does not equal 2. So a premise could hold 3, 4, 6 of even a dozen TVLs)

Now baring in mind that a premise could be a workplace, shop, sports centre, gym etc etc etc OR a household the number of households which hold a TVL must equal less than 25.3 million, unfortunately there is no data I can find which specifically references households only so this is an unknown qualitity. However even without this data there are at least 1.8 million households which currently do not have a TVL.

So remind me how many unique blogs, videos and forum posts are you seeing from people who 'have problems'. Now compare that to the figure which we know must be at least 1.8 million households without a TVL.
Well we cannot be precise but extrapolating using court numbers, unique blogs, videos and forum posts I get around 400,000 out of 1.8million per year have problems with the TVL. Just look at the 1milllion+ people who got taken to court over the past 5 years many of which are not guilty.

Have you seen the video where a reporter got into a TVL inspector job training and filmed it? In some areas the TVL are extremely aggressive, I have ran into that myself and seen other cases that are pretty bad. the TVL target certain areas and in those areas there are a lot of people with problems with the TVL. Its worse for woman who are singled out by the TVL.
 
Well we cannot be precise but extrapolating using court numbers, unique blogs, videos and forum posts I get around 400,000 out of 1.8million per year have problems with the TVL. Just look at the 1milllion+ people who got taken to court over the past 5 years many of which are not guilty.

Have you seen the video where a reporter got into a TVL inspector job training and filmed it? In some areas the TVL are extremely aggressive, I have ran into that myself and seen other cases that are pretty bad. the TVL target certain areas and in those areas there are a lot of people with problems with the TVL. Its worse for woman who are singled out by the TVL.

I very much doubt 400k individuals have all genuinely contacted TVL to advise they do not require a TVL and this instruction has been ignored. Based on this tread alone I would argue that most people who have 'problem' is a direct result of them not doing this.
 
As someone on twitter posted the other day (paraphrasing) "I don't have to call the DVLA to tell them I don't have a car, why should I be harassed into telling the beeb/capita that I don't have a tv?"
 
I very much doubt 400k individuals have all genuinely contacted TVL to advise they do not require a TVL and this instruction has been ignored. Based on this tread alone I would argue that most people who have 'problem' is a direct result of them not doing this.
Not sure how you work that out, based on this thread a lot of the people who have problems with the TVL did follow the rules and directly inform them that hey didn't need a licence.
 
As someone on twitter posted the other day (paraphrasing) "I don't have to call the DVLA to tell them I don't have a car, why should I be harassed into telling the beeb/capita that I don't have a tv?"

Not comparable though is it as most people do have TV's they just don't watch live TV therefore no requirement. So you do have to tell the DVLA if you own a vehicle but are not using it on the road i.e. SORN it and move on with your life :)
 
Not comparable though is it as most people do have TV's they just don't watch live TV therefore no requirement. So you do have to tell the DVLA if you own a vehicle but are not using it on the road i.e. SORN it and move on with your life :)
The difference is you can SORN it and move on with you life. With the TV you cannot just tell them and move on, you have to keep retelling them over and over.
 
The difference is you can SORN it and move on with you life. With the TV you cannot just tell them and move on, you have to keep retelling them over and over.

I have cancelled a TV licence for work and never heard anything more. I actually managed to cancel my home licence by mistake once and they never contacted me for months.
 
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