TV license officers threatening me

[Lovelybitofsquirrel3]

This is a bit long.
Backstory, at my previous address I got a letter about not having a TV license. I called to explain I don't need one but the person I was speaking to still kept me on the phone for a while, and even after them going over what counts as live TV and me explaining I only watch things like disney+, they were very threatening as they were saying things like ''if you are found to be watching TV'' and the whole speech and threatening that if an officer visits and finds TV equipment I could be prosecuted. After a short few months of not receiving letters, they started again.
Since moving to my new address, I have been receiving the previous tenants sky tv letters and debt collection letters, threatening bailiffs, including a sky hub. It's really frustrating. I attempted to contact sky to explain that he doesn't live here but they insisted they couldn't do anything. I couldn't find the man named on the letters to contact him. I even tried making a local facebook post to ask if anyone knew him and not a single person replied.
I've been getting letters from the TV licensing agency and binned them each time, I didn't want to phone them because of my previous experience, and information online suggested that it was an empty threat and they would do nothing. But at the end of the year I got a letter about an upcoming visit from an enforcement officer. They never arrived. I've just received one again today, I'll comment underneath with a photo of it. I have cropped out the top and bottom in case the named officer can identify the area I live in, but the bottom says that a report will be sent to the prosecutor fiscal who will decide on prosecution. The link they've given where I can update I don't need a license online is actually broken and not functional.
I can't remember where I read it, but apparently receiving letters from sky can be seen as proof that I'm watching live TV, or having a TV can be seen as proof. I also have a satellite connected to the house that was here when I moved.
I haven't done anything wrong but I feel really afraid. The letter reads that if I dont answer they can keep coming back at any time of day. I don't understand why they can go around threatening people like this. I'm thinking about calling the police over it but that might be an over reaction.

You don’t need to call them, fill in the online form!

Don't call them. What part of "they'll twist everything you say and try to get you to confess" are you struggling to understand? Engaging with them verbally isn't in your best interests. They will want your name. Then they'll have your name. Their threatening letters will seem a lot worse if they're addressed to you personally. They won't register the address as not needing a TV license unless you also give them your name. I know because I've tried.

Same for debt collectors letters. Don't phone them, it'll get you nowhere, they'll extract your name and address from you and they still won't believe you're not the person with the debt. Write to them like I said. Sending post back "return to sender" doesn't stop them contacting you either. But writing them an actual letter usually will.

Going back to the original question, it may seem like they have written to you saying that they are coming (was it on a specific date?), or giving you 10 days to get "correctly licensed", but these are hollow threats that they send in their millions.

You can safely ignore those letters.

Sorry I have not read everyone's responses so someone may already have posted this but the 'no tv' link from your letter works for me. It goes here:

https://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/check-if-you-need-one/topics/telling-us-you-dont-need-a-tv-licence?utmsource=shorturl&utmmmedium=website&utmcontent=notv#

Haven't RTFT but I agree with all PP saying the tone of the letter is terrible. I cancelled our TV licence over 6 months ago, they had me on the phone for about 30 mins trying to tell me I still needed it. They sent numerous letters afterwards threatening to send people round to check we weren't watching live TV, we would be fined, all very menacing. I felt like a criminal. I think it's disgusting that they could send letters of this tone to vulnerable people who would probably feel intimidated into needing a TV licence.

I'm just thinking of people on low incomes who would genuinely like a TV, but don't because they can't afford to pay for a licence.

Somebody constantly harassing you because you haven't bought something that you can't afford and so do without is no better really than the school bullies who taunt you for wearing the 'wrong' cheap trainers.

At least the school bullies don't usually come and harass you in your own home; nor do they pretend that they have the law on their side and can actually prosecute you because you can't afford Nikes and have George at Asda trainers instead.

It's really hard to get over to people just how fake the whole TVL thing is. People get so used to being bossed around by public agencies that it's hard to persuade them that when something pops up that appears to be an agency, and appears to behave like an agency... it isn't.

TVL isn't a government body, nor is it a statutory agency of some other sort. Neither the name "TV Licensing" or the concept of an enforcement agent appears in the legislation. What it is, is a BBC trade mark that the BBC uses to employ some commercial companies. The letters are not just threatening, but they also tend to include quite a lot of misleading information, as well as what we might call "threat theatre".

Over all of that, though, is the issue that neither the letters nor most of the demands within them have any legal weight - they are at best the whims of the BBC.

You sound like an intelligent, savvy, non-vulnerable person, though - they aren't incessantly and successfully targeting you as their prime victims.

The fact that they're employed by the BBC is enough to make them appear to be legitimate and official in most people's eyes.

It's not like they're unconnected to the BBC and 'fronting' as though they were in order to deceive people into assuming they are working on their behalf; they very much ARE.

Shame on the BBC for trying to exploit people.

Can you expect much more from an organisation that protects child abusers to safeguard its reputation and profits?

I can't see them lasting much longer in their current form and they don't seem willing to move with the times.

The only people I know who have a TV license are my mum's age or older, people who have had one since its inception. Younger generations are opting for streaming services over paying the BBC for a variety of reasons, including the aforementioned love for pedophiles they seem to have.

Their content also doesn't match up to what other services are developing. You have Netflix coming out with massive ratings grabbers like Wednesday, Squid Games, and Stranger Things. Disney has Marvel. Prime has The Boys and the newest iteration of Top Gear—not all necessarily my kind of shows, but they are ratings grabbers. And the BBC has what? Doctor Who?

Apart from Doctor Who all they seem to produce is cooking and gardening shows. You don't walk into the office on a Monday morning and people are buzzing about the newest BBC show or telling you they binge-watched an entire BBC series in a weekend, do you?

Send a letter to the to licensing

withdrawing rights of access”. Google for a template letter

also do include your name - as the sky letters are in a different name and you can prove then at a later date you’ve not got a sky account if you needed

ive not had a letter for 14 years now

Oh and when I telephoned to say that I didn’t need a TV license, cause I didn’t have a TV and could they stop sending me the letters? The gentleman said to me that if I went to a friend‘s house and watched a TV there I would be breaking the law. I just laughed to him and put the phone down.

Of all the things that never happened, this never happened the most 🤣

They will last because unfortunately the Labour government are the ones that want to carry on with the TV licence, I think the Tories would have got rid of it

Also, there will be a public consultation this year which will feee into the license fee charter renewal in 2027, if you want your say then make sure you complete it.

Watch this video - it's specifically about the tone of these letters and how it's nothing but bullying behaviour.

And if it's not been clear enough in the thread IGNORE THE LETTER AND DO NOT CONTACT THEM.

If, and it's a big if, they come to the door, DO NOT LET THEM IN. You do not need to prove you are innocent. The burden is on them.

This is what I fear they rely on though: just another in their repertoire of lies.

You knew he was being ridiculous and responded accordingly; but they know very well that a lot of people will be browbeaten and submit to their gaslighting - and feel forced into buying an unnecessary licence because they sometimes watch TV in other people's homes.

They have no interest whatsoever in ensuring that people are correctly licensed when needed; they just want to sell as many licences as they possibly can - using fear, lies and threats - and they couldn't care less whether they've defrauded somebody - however poor they may be - in order to get the sale.

They're actually potentially taking food out of kids' mouths when they deceive and gaslight their single mum into giving them money each month for the TV that they can't afford to have anyway.

I used to fill out the stupid online declaration every year but stopped because I can't be bothered. If they want to waste their time coming round to find out I don't watch live tv then they are welcome to. We get those letters every few weeks, they all go in the recycling unopened. This has been going on for years and they've never sent anyone round.

It's a shame you can't just pay for and therefore support the decent programmes that the BBC make. We have some blurays of the nature documentaries they have done with david Attenborough and they're amazing. But most of the other stuff is shite.

You can usually buy BBC series' via Prime. That's how we get Doctor Who. I think certain Prime channels also show some Attenborough documentaries. I've watched some fairly recently so it's on some streaming service, either Prime, Netflix or Disney.

Thank you. I never thought about prime. I'll check it out.

Mad, isn't it? What other consumer option are you forced to justify not choosing to participate in?

If I decide to buy all of my food from one supermarket, should I reasonably expect all the other shops in town that sell food to demand to know why I haven't spent anything with them - and thus conclude that I must have been shoplifting their goods instead? Should I just take the trouble to go online regularly and explain my choice not to use them to them all?

Is it fair if they threaten me with prosecution based on their assumption that I 'must have been' shoplifting from them - not because they have any evidence or the tiniest grounds to suspect this, but just because they reckon their food is so good, they just can't believe that anybody would choose to go anywhere else for their food?

I don't think that letter is legit. Very badly written, with incorrect punctuation, wrong phone number and web address for tv licensing. Could be a scam. Just ignore and move on with your life.

Calling them will not cost you anything, it's free number. They were nice with me, I've spoken to them twice. Just explained what I watch and that I do not watch any of the live content on Disney+ Nowtv or Prime, only stream the uploaded stuff. They agreed I didn't need one and check back with me every year to see whether that has changed.

Sounds like you got a right arsehole when you called.

It's a genuine letter (sadly). The different phone numbers are used to track what you are responding to when you call them. The different web addresses go to different parts of their website.

This is the sort of twaddle that TVL send to people. You can see a variety of letters here (not been updated recently):

http://www.bbctvlicence.com

We got this exact one yesterday. They seem to cycle through a series of them. They start with the one they sent OP, then this one, and then a slightly nastier one warning you they ARE watching you, they WILL catch you, and you could go to prison WHEN you are caught.

Given that they've been allegedly watching me for over 10 years now, and they allegedly have equipment that can see what I'm watching you'd think they'd have worked out that we don't watch any TV by now. We stream from services like Netflix but we don't use any of the services offered by any of terrestrial channels.