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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To have told the to licence man to piss off?

274 replies

DontGoRhiannonStay · 20/01/2017 12:50

I have phoned them so many times and told them we don't need a licence. I have a no licence needed declaration.
So when this guy stood on my doorstep and tried to read me some
Sort of "rights" was IBU to tell him to piss off before shutting the door on him? (It felt amazing)

OP posts:
Memoires · 20/01/2017 15:53

We really are losing the 'innocent until proven guilty' basis of law in our society, aren't we? TV licence have been worse than anyone/any organisation afaik, and been doing it longer. They will make completely unfounded allegations and treat them as proof.

I do wonder if it is legal to insist on going through someone's home on no evidence whatsoever. Even police have to have some reason for getting in.

mum2Bomg · 20/01/2017 15:57

Declare WOIRA - the withdrawal of the implied right of access and then they can't knock on your door.

Politix · 20/01/2017 16:06

YABU and petty. Id have shown him in and let him check. What's the issue???

OhGoveUckYourself · 20/01/2017 16:07

You don't have to allow them access to your home. They can only come in by invitation unless they have a search warrant. No magistrate would sign a warrant application without a great deal of evidence. In fact, after over 10 years on the bench I have never come across a case where a warrant was applied for let alone granted.

WankingMonkey · 20/01/2017 16:10

Id have shown him in and let him check. What's the issue???

Would you do this to any random stranger who appeared on your doorstep and started reading your rights to you?

I mean, some group fiercely against drugs could turn up and do it, claiming they want to check you have no drugs in your house...just incase, so they can report you if you are lying. You know you are innocent. The group they belong to also have a history of bullying and lying..and have on occasion tricked people into signing a form to say they do infact sell drugs and prosecuted based on said 'evidence'. Would you let them have a look round? Afterall..wheres the harm?

OurBlanche · 20/01/2017 16:13

Declare WOIRA - the withdrawal of the implied right of access and then they can't knock on your door. Doesn't seem to stop Capita, unfortunately!

I was driven to do that at this address. We have not had TV in many addresses, got it, got rid of it in an endless circle of mind changing over the last 30 years. At this address they had had their quota of coming in and looking around. I was polite the forst and second time... started getting a bit arsey the third - seventh time, all within 6 months.

Up until last year I was one of those who said, let them in, be nice, they update the paperwork and never come back! But for some reason this hasn't been the case this time.

Capita have shown themselves to be incompetant bullies in many situations. TV licensing just gives them a new level of misinformation to peddle!

ivykaty44 · 20/01/2017 16:13

Swearing at anyone is unpleasant, I would want to do a job and be sworn at.

If you don't want these people calling the withdraw rights of access to your property, it's not difficult to do

ivykaty44 · 20/01/2017 16:18

You always get people who buy a licence as they think it's such good value and nothing is as good as BBC and oh I would buy a licence for just one particular programming

Well it's easier to wait for the DVD and buy that at £150 less. I don't go to a restaurant and order every dish on the menu and then go home, it would be silly

OurBlanche · 20/01/2017 16:25

And repeat: The license is not just for the BBC!!!

That and no matter how cheap the DVD the cost woud mount up.. so, in your favourite restaurant you might eventually order the whole menu Smile

Newbrummie · 20/01/2017 16:30

They tricked my cousin into a &1,000 fine in 1996 when she was a single mum on the dole, i on her behalf thank you OP

OrchidaceousRose · 20/01/2017 16:48

I can't remember the last time I watched a whole episode of something on the BBC, never mind a whole season...so it's not my favourite restaurant OurBlanche...

It's a slightly rundown place that still occupies a prime location and trades on it's old standards and specials. With snooty and entitled staff, who not only hush hushed that old Uncle Jimmy was a bad 'un, but also still see fit to come round and demand money with menaces!

It's like Chicken Kiev with the Krays.

OurBlanche · 20/01/2017 16:51

I can't remember the last time I watched a whole episode of something on the BBC, never mind a whole season...so it's not my favourite restaurant OurBlanche... Yeesh!! I was just carrying on your analogy! Smile

But the license is not just for the BBC!

SaskiaRembrandtWasFramed · 20/01/2017 17:02

"It's like Chicken Kiev with the Krays."

Grin
LivingOnTheDancefloor · 20/01/2017 17:03

OurBlanche
We get it! You are the one who don't seem to be understanding.

The license is for all live TV, but only on demand BBC.
So basically we can - without a license - watch all programs as long as we are waiting for them to be available on demand EXCEPT for the BBC ones.
Considering the fact that a lot of people are never watching live TV, only on demand, the lack of TV license only prevents us from watching BBC programs.

EmeraldScorn · 20/01/2017 17:10

You are perfectly within your rights to tell them to piss off.

They have no legal authority and you are not obliged to entertain them in any way; You do not have to answer questions or allow them access to your property.

I do try to maintain a level of common decency when dealing with certain people but not these dicks, I have told them to fuck off on several occasions.

Don't listen to the "Little Miss Goody Two Shoes" on here who say you were unreasonable; You were not at all!

OurBlanche · 20/01/2017 17:15

OurBlanche
We get it! You are the one who don't seem to be understanding

So why are you now talking about On Demand? Considering the fact that many people still watch TV as it is broadcast you seem to have thrown in a distraction!

Ah! The never watching TV live thing. Fine, if that's how you watch telly, whi cares. But the casual "Fuck it, I don't watch BBC" type answers are misled and misleading.

If you want to talk about the lack of relevance to On Demand TV consumption that would be a totally different thread... one that should lead to a change in the licensing law, eventually!

OrchidaceousRose · 20/01/2017 17:22

It wasn't my analogy OurBlanche, it was Ivykayt44's.

Does part of the licence fee go to Netflix, or Amazon or AMC or ABC or BT Sport for their programming? No.

I don't watch the other tv providers who have some licence fee funding either, as I don't watch S4C or my local station.

Until a recent house move, my broadband was via the old cable TV system rather than the nationally funded fibre rollout. And there are plenty of places close to where I live (rural Scotland) that either had to have Scottish government subsidy to receive broadband or had to club together to get it a community or are still waiting for it!

I would happily pay a broadband licence, if there was one. I think that would be a good way to go- a licence for broadband (to fund roll-out me upkeep of system) a licence for tv reception and a BBC subscription. Pick what you use, pay for what you use, with appropriate rebates for elderly people/people on benefits

londonrach · 20/01/2017 17:22

I dont understand why you let them. I have a tv and pay a licence but have a friend whos not had one since 1980s. He gets the van parked outside.

LivingOnTheDancefloor · 20/01/2017 17:22

I am not sure I understand our point *OurBlanche".

What I meant to say I I believe people are saying "we don't watch BBC" because considering the TV license rules regarding live/on demand, without a license you still have access to the other channel's contents.

I am not "now talking about on demand", nowadays "watching TV" means on demand as well as live. I know a lot of people (me included) who only watch on demand, what is the point of having to be in front of your TV at a certain time when you can access the program whenever you want?

They make it quite difficult to opt out of the TV license, and in the process you are reminded over and over of the rules, so I am assuming that people who have opt out know the rules.
I accept I might be mistaken

londonrach · 20/01/2017 17:23

But never had anyone knock.

LivingOnTheDancefloor · 20/01/2017 17:28

sorry for the typos...

OurBlanche · 20/01/2017 17:29

My 'analogy' comment was to ivykat, Living....!!!!

As for the rest of that you are talking about a legal requirement that is currently in place, not you personal preference.

Yes, I agree it should be different, but to continue to blather on about "our license fee doesn't pay for ITV etc" is missing the current legal issue entirely.

That's my point. Get pissed of with it by all means, it is antiquated.

Loving the 'our' in that last post, too, as though you are sat with all other posters, shaking your head at silly little old me Grin

OurBlanche · 20/01/2017 17:32

Ah! Sorry, Orchid/ivykat... I see I concatenated a few posts []blush]

Blame the lack of B12...mental fog and a need for 48 hours uninterrupted sleep Smile

[Bows out hoping to be allowed back in when she has had that GP appointment]

lovelearning · 20/01/2017 17:33

I think either the BBC should be funded through the taxpayer - or start to have adverts.

How many of us without TV licences listen to BBC radio stations?

OrchidaceousRose · 20/01/2017 17:36

According to figures gleaned from Wikipedia and the BBC's own website, less than 10% of TV licence fee income is spent on non-BBC items, namely, Broadband rollout, S4C and Local TV.

So people who say "We never watch the BBC" have a big point OurBlanche. The lion's share of the licence fee money goes to that.

Of course it's not a legal defence for not having a licence...but it is why there is mounting pressure to scrap the licence fee.