Wrongly accused of watching BBC iPlayer without a licence

[Cattenberg]

I have never had a TV (or an iPlayer account) at my current address, so since moving here I haven’t had a TV licence.

Today, I got a letter from TV Licensing claiming that someone at my address has watched BBC iPlayer on several occasions in the last few weeks without a licence. I know I haven’t and the only other resident (my eight-year-old) swears she hasn’t and I believe her. In order to watch something on iPlayer, don’t you have to log in first?

The letter says I have to buy a licence and gives me a link to the TV licensing website, but whichever option I select to try to contact them, I am either blocked from sending a message because I don’t have a current TV licence number, or I’m re-directed to the page for buying a new licence. Hmm…

I suppose I’ll have to write a letter to them, but has anyone else experienced this? I do NOT want to watch TV or buy a licence. I’d prefer it if they blocked my property from receiving all BBC services, so I never have to worry about this again.

I’m also wondering if someone could have accessed my Wi-fi, perhaps the next-door neighbours (one set aren’t very nice) or the workmen who occasionally park on the street outside my house as they’re renovating a nearby property.

I would bet that someone that does need a licence has signed up and used a fake address (yours) at random.

That's interesting, and very sneaky!

I would wait for another letter OP and hopefully they will list dates when you viewed it so you can narrow down the list of suspects. In the meantime check your WiFi router to see which devices are using it and kick them off if you don't recognise them.

Its a phishing letter.

They're hoping you have and will panic and buy a license.

Just re declare you don't watch it.

I've had multiple of these.

This link may provide some clarity:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TV_detector_van#HeroSection

They are relentless. My parent's house was empty, we informed the TV licencing agency and the licence was cancelled as no TV was being watched, either in the house or elsewhere.

Despite doing this, they sent letter by letter and demands addressed to 'the occupier' of my parents empty house. No one new had moved in. It was still empty. Haven't seen one relating to iplayer before then.

My elderly father passed away late last year and we told all the relevant services. His flat is now absolutely empty and for sale. Now similar letters have been arriving from the tv licence people. They’re not saying we’ve been watching anything as with the op, but asking why don’t we have a licence and to get one. I didn’t appreciate the tone of their letter and anyway they’ve been told of the situation already. I’ve been online and fended them off, but I think it’s only temporary and in time they’ll sending snotty letters again

Please don’t worry. I remember a guy came round to our house when I was a kid and my dad (who had definitely not paid the fee) told him to fuck off. The guy put his foot in the door as dad slammed it and my dad almost threw him across the road… didn’t even get taken to court for that so I think you’ll be fine 😭.

It’s just a standard letter they send out to scare/bully you into buying a tv licence that you don’t need/want.
There’s a bit on their website where you can tell them you don’t want a license and you won’t watch the bbc/live tv without one. Then they’ll leave you alone.

Ignore it, the burden of proof is on them not you

I get a letter every 6 weeks or so from them. They range from “ don’t forget to let us know that you don’t need a license” to big red enforcement style letters telling me that someone will be paying me a visit on a certain date, but it could also be any other date at any time. I’ve also been told that apparently someone at my address is watching the bbc, which they’re not. I bin everything and never communicate with them, and if anyone actually did knock on the door, they’ll be told to go away. This has gone on for 5 years, I wish they’d make it an opt in if you want to watch it like Netflix etc.

This is phishing. They send these intimidating letters out hoping to scare people into paying. The licence fee is in freefall with half a million people recently stopping to pay. Don't worry, do nothing.

I don't have a licence.
I do an online declaration and have received just one letter when the declaration ran out over the past 4 years.
Their behaviour totally disgusts me, I loathe the BBC and their overpayed same old faces.

This, if you think someone else has been using your WiFi, add or change the password!

My mum bought a house right before lockdown. It remained empty for two years and it didn’t even have electricity as she never got it switched on. She filled in the online form. But she got probably a hundred tv licence letters. Saying they knew she was watching tv, they had detected it, they had seen a tv in there and so on. It’s an outrage.

Conversely, I stopped watching the bbc and live tv for a year, filled in the form online and never had one letter.

They're incredibly heavy-handed and the overbearing tone led to me chucking quite a few in the bin. Then I did a 'no licence needed' declaration, only to get a letter when that ran out telling me to buy a licence.

I dutifully went to the link, but if they carry on being so threatening I might let them waste money on endless letters next time around.

You can ignore it.
You can also write to them and - apparently - they stop sending letters.

I had a TV license all my life until I was 75. Even when I lived on a rough council estate as a student (when I suspect I was the only person with a license) I had one. At 75 I no longer needed one so I stopped paying. Then that gang of robber barons decided they would break the rules and make over 75s (who were not on pension credit) buy one again. No matey I am not going to buy a new license. Ive had letters and emails (the emails are a scam) and they go straight into the bin. I don't open the door anyway unless I'm expecting someone so you can bugger right off.

By writing to them, letting them into your house etc. ie by acknowledging, admitting you exist, by pleading guilty etc.
It’s a rare example of it being better to ignore.

I am thoroughly bored with receiving these letters I did take the time to call them, and explain my situation (watch legally at one address, don’t watch BBC shit at the other). Went quiet for a year and letters have now restarted. I think u will just start returning to sender .

I've had this, it's 100% a bad faith fishing exercise. If you request more info they invent a email address that they claim "has links to property" that signed into iplayer. Ignore them.

They are SO annoying. We used to have no TV at all and got the letters. I took time to write to them informing them we didn't use a TV, despite the fact that actually I had nothing to do with them at all and owed them nothing. They still sent threatening letters. Just ignore them.

I’d love to know how much money they’re spending a year on these endless letters, it must surely be cheaper to make it like Netflix - if you don’t pay, you don’t watch!

I’ll answer my own question, with some help from Cgpt it’s £165.6 million, Which is something like 977,000 households tv license fee.

Something useful to be aware of, and I know it sounds bizarre, but you can access content provided your device is not plugged into the mains. I know this because I got a letter due to a parent who lives 1 mile away, and who has a licence, babysitting for my child and accessing the BBC on her iPad. I read through all the policies and spotted this.

I did one year fill in the opt out and assumed that was the end of the matter. But no -when it ‘ran out’(???) after a year I got the usual letters. I am not going to waste my time ‘opting out’ every year for a ribbish ‘service’ I never use. I’ be had all the threatening letters including the iplayer ones. I find it scandalous that they are allowed to harrass and bully people like this.