TV Licensing just tried to walk into my house!

[StudentMumArghh]

So my door handle has just had a good bashing by a man. Luckily it was locked. Opened the door and it's a man from TV licensing.

I told him we don't need a Licence and that he can't come in, he left.

AIBU to be furious at this. You can't just walk into someone else's home!!!

Not everyone does put up with it. A lot of us are aware of rights and ignore them and their letters.

I get letters all the time. They ask me if I will be in on x date as they are coming. That they have evidence against me to start court action. I can stop this visit and action if I buy a license. If I don’t I will be fined £1,000.

Court must really backed up. Have been getting these letters for the past 3 years.

Yes I could contact but why should I? I don’t have to contact dvla to say don’t come and check on me because I haven’t got a car.

Their letters imply that I am guilty of something. Normally you are innocent until proven guilty. These bullies and the corporation they represent say until we see for ourselves you are lying and guilty.

The more people that start to know their rights the better.
If you don’t watch live tv regardless of the channel, or you don’t watch iPlayer you don’t need a license.
You can watch catchup from other providers. YouTube. Amazon. Netflix. Watch dvd’s. Play games without a license.
Watch as it’s aired license required.

You don’t have to let them know you don’t need one. Some people chose to do this and still have someone come to check up to make sure you are lying (see guilty until you prove innocence).
Unless they have a warrant you don’t have to let them in.
To get a warrant is extremely difficult.

And as for the crap that Beeb don’t have adverts. Ages ago I was at someone’s house. After every bloody program there was an ad for their own products. The amount of time they used they could have used the time for actual paid ads instead of bullying the population.

I hate the TV licence coming out of my account every quarter as I'm always skint and have no spare money that month as it eats it all, but how is that an excuse to not pay it? I class it same as mortgage and council tax bills. It needs to be paid whether I agree with it or not.

Depends if you actually need it. Many people pay who don’t need it. Just owning a tv isn’t reason to pay it.

Yes Pumpkin but do you actually watch/record live TV or use BBC iPlayer? If not, then you don't need to be paying it. Many people nowadays (like my DD) don't seem to watch live TV. You can use for free the on demand services from the other channels, like ITV hub, All 4,and if there are just a few series you like on the BBC you can buy the DVD or Amazon instant video, or sometimes they're on YouTube. That can work out cheaper than getting a licence. No good if you have an EastEnders habit though!

Also if you do need a licence and want to pay in installments, quarterly is the worst way, as for some reason I think they add a surcharge on. You can pay monthly, and there's no surcharge, and it would also spread it out a bit more for you.

People say you don't need a tv license if you don't watch tv but when I went to buy a tv when I first moved out of my mums house they asked me for my address to check if I had a license before they would sell it to me! And this was argos. I gave my mums address. Don't know if they still do this?? It was a few years ago.

Capita are on commission and don't have right of entry even if you are breaking the law. They need to get bailiffs.

I don't know if it's still the case but the meter readers used to have a right to enter your home to look at the meter. There was a requirement to inspect a meter every 2 years and if you were never in or wouldn't let them in, they could break in.

The problem you have now is that the energy companies outsource the meter reading and they're not a very professional bunch, often they don't have a uniform and I don't open the door to cold callers.

The point about the BBC ads for their own programmes is that they don't have advert breaks, the programme itself isn't interrupted. I think that's the thing people don't like, not the ads per se. I want to watch something without it being interrupted every 10 minutes.

Yeh ime metre readers are still like that. I had one knock on the door when my son had just got out the bath and wasn't dressed. I told him I wasn't able to let him in ATM (wasn't going to let a stranger in my home whilst my child was undressed) and he was very aggressive about it! And demanded to be let in, I just shut the door in his face.

We have no licence as we don't watch/record live TV or watch iPlayer, there's no way I'm paying £120+ when I don't need to! Ridiculous to think they can intimidate me, cheeky fuckers.

I heard him say he'd be back as I closed my door, next time he'll have my phone recording him. I heard they don't like that!

And as for the crap that Beeb don’t have adverts. Ages ago I was at someone’s house. After every bloody program there was an ad for their own products.

^This. Every few minutes on every BBC channel.

Not long ago a TV licensing guy tried to force his way into my house. Literally tried to push past me. Then Dh (well built, 6ft 3) came flying out with a huge booming voice asking who it was at the door. This guy literally turned white and ran away

I am still very glad DH was in that day. I am very wary of answering the door now if he isn't in.

This happened to me but she couldn't get in because the kids' shoes were jamming the door. I went to the door and answered her questions regarding what I watch. She was threatening me with court and fines unless I gave my payment details there and then.
According to this thread I don't even need the license. If I cancel it and it happens again, is there anything I can quote legally before I shut the door?

TV licensing folk nearly always ask if my parents are in. I say no "technically true" as I'm in my 30s and they live 2 hours away. Then they usually go away. Although once, one guy put his foot in the door to stop me closing the door. He was being very aggressive, but when I went to close the door he very quickly pulled his foot away.

This is a technique used by burglars all the time. Be careful! Maybe let your neighbours know OP

They're aggressive cunts who can't get a proper job elsewhere

They’re not allowed to do that. And I used to work at The BBC in TV Licensing. Contact them and ask for the contact details of the complaints manager at The BBC - don’t just tell The capita call centre.

They can also check if there was a visit logged or if it was a fraud.

Declare WOIRA - the withdrawal of their implied right to access and then they can’t legally knock on your door.

Op contact the police. It sounds like an attempted burglary.

I had this when I moved into my last property. I was upstairs putting newborn DS in his crib around mid afternoon when I heard the front door open. Assuming it was DH Home early I finished putting DS down and then I heard the dog snarling at someone. I flew downstairs to see a random guy in my living room up against the wall with dog holding him at bay. He was screaming at me to remove the dog and that he was TV licensing. My answer was to remind him he walked into a house univited which is trespassing.
I called the police and his boss and reported him. Lucky that my dog is so well trained and just held him in position till I called him off, if it had been our old dog who died the year before he would have been missing a few chunks when he left

Similar happened to my friend, he just walked in (her front door opens into the sitting room) to her house where she was breastfeeding her DS and started to walk up her stairs! Her husband soon out an end to that.

There are lots of videos on YouTube where people have filmed TVL people trying to gain access to their homes, they are worth a watch.

tvl are very aggressive IME.
Once I left a property and was due a refund on the licence I had there, so I sent away for it, and i n due course a standard letter arrived from them. It was the sort which has a cheque form printed at the bottom and a cheque to me for the balance was on it. This particular letter was obviously only for refunding money, it was pre-printed and had a cheque attached ffs, yet it was still written in very aggressive tones, full of threats and horridness.
I do have a tv licence now so they leave me alone now, but I've encountered them when they've been looking for my neighbour's house (they have barky dogs so tvl won't go in there :)) and they are all horrible.

They've been writing to me for about 18 months now, giving dates they're going to come and inspect, threats of court etc, and I'm still waiting for them!
Did write initially, but that seems to have made no difference. If they did visit they'd realise there's no roof and no windows to the house, so unlikely to have a TV

I watched something on YouTube/Facebook where a man's horse received a letter to its stable.

They refused to speak to the man when he called because he was not the occupier of the property. He tried explaining the occupier of the property was a horse and therefore unable to come to the phone and they still wouldn't take his word for it that was no TV at the address because he wasn't the occupier

At the end there was an update, revealing the horse had been threatened with court after failing to make contact with them

Arrrghh tv licence really pees me off. I never watch bbc and pay a bloody fortune for sky, amazon prime and Netflix. It’s so outdated, they need to start putting adverts on and scrap the bloody thing.