TV licence!!!

[cheeseandbeansontoasts]

I cancelled the TV licence a few months ago as we never ever watch TV or use anything that would be deemed as watching TV. The only thing we watch are the odd film on Netflix.

i keep getting letters and emails telling me to contact them before it escalates?!!! I was paying for the licence for years despite not actually ever watching tv!! So decided to stop.

any advice? This is ridiculous being threatened for something I don’t even owe them!

Did you go online and register for not needing a licence?
I get an email once a year to check I still don't need one. Need had any threatening letters or emails.

You need to declare that your property doesn't need a TV license. Very easy to do on their website x

I feel your pain I've registered done everything they tell you to and yet I still frequently get emails and letters. I have genuinely found returning them makes zero difference so I just ignore them although if I've had a particularly shit day I must admit they rub me up the wrong way. It must cost them a bloody fortune to send so many unnecessary letters.

Thanks both I did try to do that a few times but the website kept saying it was temporarily unavailable.

I never, literally never, watch the TV. I get letters etc, but IMO they shouldn't assume everyone needs one. It's bullshit these days, when we all pay for online packages.

@Luxiolike you I have tried to register but the website kept saying it was unavailable so I have up. Got I today to more threatening letters!

I've actually registered and completed the declaration but it's honestly made no difference. I doubt I would receive more emails or letters than I currently do if I hadn't made the declaration. Honestly it was a waste of time.

I didn't fill it in as I do need a licence but out of interest I went on to opt out and the website seems to be working so why not do it now

They can send some really nasty letters. Just ignore. If you are not doing anything wrong you are not going to get fined.

Telling them you don't have a TV doesn't always stop the nasty letters anyway.

I declared that I didn’t need mine, I still get letters every so often asking if I need one. Not a threatening letter just asking. I ignore and bin it.

It's outrageous that you're expected to do that, though.

I've never obtained a pilot's licence - or indeed ever piloted any kind of aircraft - and the Civil Aviation Authority have never sent me nasty threatening letters telling me that I must get one or that I'll go to prison and/or get a criminal record if I don't.

I sort of get how it originally developed that way, as it was by far the default to watch live broadcast TV and almost everybody did so years ago; but now there are so very many alternatives, they're still clinging on to their former glories of everybody wanting to use their services.

Nowadays, it would probably make as much (or as little) sense if Netflix were to routinely send threatening and harassing letters to non-subscribers, ordering them to pay up, as it does for TV Licensing to do so, as they do.

I'm guessing that, according to their accusatory thinking, people who have been paying for a long time and suddenly stop are those who have decided they're just going to chance their arm and save themselves a few quid - or have hit hard times and can't afford to pay - but still continue to use their service.

Of course, that makes no allowance whatsoever for people who realise that they haven't used it for ages anyway and so are cancelling it like a never-used New Year gym membership sign-up; or even for people who figure that it isn't value for money, so they will stop paying and do without the little that they previously did use.

Once you haven't been paying them for a long time, they likely figure that you're either clearly not fussed about live TV and are a lost customer and/or are not scared of them and their threats and so not an easy win for them.

Like any other business, they focus on recent losses - although most businesses try to entice you back with special offers or gifts rather than with threats of prison if you don't start giving them your custom again.

Had our first letter this week!
Been paying for a service we do not use for years and years, and as soon as we cancel and stop paying we get a nasty and threating letter saying they've cancelled our licence and someone will be showing up at our door, when in fact we cancelled our licence.

That letter just proved, we made the right decision and we will never go back, so don't know what they are hoping to achieve with 'bully boy' tactics.

I get letters saying they’re coming to my house a few times a year, they never do and I very much doubt they will!

@SprayWhiteDung I get where you're coming from, however, there isn't random aeroplanes I could fly in my home that I would need a license for. Most homes have the old style aerial, you only need to plug it in and you're watching live TV. Or, more commonly these days, most tvs you buy from shops come with built in free view and live TV so it is unavoidable. The majority of households own a TV, hence the letters.
I don't agree we should have to pay a licensing fee anymore, and I have made my declaration and never had any correspondence since. Every year I re-declare my no need for a license. They need to catch on to modern times and set up a subscription service x

Very true; but how many people are having new aerials fitted nowadays? You could potentially argue that the BBC are at fault for broadcasting their content unencrypted on public airwaves - and what a cheek to then arrogantly assume that everybody wants to watch it and thus charge them!

And how far do you take it? Do you threaten to prosecute all members of a house where none of the adults have a driving licence, yet their house has a drive that was clearly originally designed for the residents to park a vehicle on - so they must be driving illegally?!

Do you accuse the people in houses that overlook beaches of voyeurism - just because there are a lot of scantily-clad people around and their house happens to have windows?!

Yes, most householders do own a TV; but it's not like the old days where having a TV simply meant that you would definitely watch one of the few main live channels every time you used it. So much has changed now. You could use a massive TV exclusively for streaming Netflix or YouTube; whilst you could have no screens bigger than a phone but then use that phone to watch iPlayer all day and night (and obviously lying and claiming that you have got a licence when asked).

Just like having pint glasses in your home is no proof or guarantee that you drink alcohol.

Do those of you who never watch TV also never watch any kind of video on any kind of screen?

I love watching a good crime drama and much prefer to curl up on the settee with DH to watch it on TV than hunch over a small screen.

Agreed. I got yet another one last week. I haven’t had a licence for years as I don’t do anything that requires one. I could make the effort to tell them but I don’t really see the point. After about a year they start up with the bullying letters again.
I’ve ignored them for years without any consequences. Only ever one visit which was

in about 2021 I think. Awful, bossy woman knocked on quite a few doors on my street. I didn’t let her in. She was rude and unpleasant I held onto the door until she finally gave up.

Yes lol. I watch hours and hours (way too much really) of dvds, you tube, itv, 4od etc. As long as it’s not shown as live or the BBC it’s legal. I’m always sufficiently entertained (so much so that I haven’t ever yet signed up to Netflix etc)

There was a thread a while back which explained the cycle of threatening letters which go around in a circle. Along the lines of: pay your license, officers could visit you any time day or night, we are giving you 3 days grace to declare you need a licence etc to start again with pay your license!

I agree with another poster up thread. If I didn't drive a car or didn't have a gun license, should I have to declare that I don't??? No. We were renovating and now moved into the new place and moved the TV license to the new property. Our previous property is empty whilst we renovate that, before either renting or selling it. Its none of their business that it's empty and I'd worry about them knowing that info. I therefore haven't completed the documents to tell them- despite the cycle of letters we get there.

Ironically that's probably more effort than a lot of people WITH TV licenses have to make. I don't know but I bet TV licensing manage just fine to help their paying customers automate the process with direct debit.

I totally agree with you @SprayWhiteDung , but refusing to sign the thing is very much cutting off your nose to spite your face.

I cancelled mine, did the declaration thingy a couple of times and now just ignore further letters.
Actually I noticed that the last letter that came to the house was addressed to the Occupier and not my name, so they just keep these letters coming in case the owners or tenants have changed hands.

I no longer lose sleep over it.

Fair enough.

TBH it's the morally superior tone that comes across from some posters who say "I never, ever watch TV" that makes me wonder if they think that people who enjoy watching TV are intellectually inferior.

We’ve had this for several years. They send the letters in cycles. When the cycle is completed they start at the beginning again all the way up to the red envelopes. We had someone come to the door only once in all these years, we weren’t in and they left a note through the letterbox saying they had been and would come back, they haven’t.
I haven’t declared that I don’t need one because I don’t want them to know my name (which they don’t have) and they still continue to harass you if you do declare you don’t need one. Letters go in the bin. I’m doing nothing wrong. If one does come to the door it’ll be shut in their face. I’ve heard many stories from friends who’ve let them in and tried to fine them just because their smart tv has BBC Iplayer as an option (pre installed software when they got the tv and haven’t used!). It’s pathetic. They’re waging a losing war. As for their detector vans… 😂😂😂

I refuse to inform them I don’t need a license. Why the hell should be I have to inform a business that I don’t want their services. I don’t tell any other organisation that I don’t. So they can bugger off.
If they want to send me letters, well it’s their money they are wasting and the more they send them the less likely I am to sign up to their damned service. It’s borderline harassment the number of unwanted, unasked for threatening letters.
I have once had someone come to the door. They were given short shrift and escorted off the property. When the bloke got shitty with me not letting him in the house I told him to come back with a warrant. It’s 6 years later and he hasn’t come back yet.