Anyone else receiving letters threatening visits from TV licensing?

[Newcarforchristmas]

I have a TV license as the kids occasionally watch live TV. I’ve always had a TV license and moved it with us when we moved house in Dec 2022.
For most of the time living here I’ve received letters addressed to ‘The legal occupier’ stating that the address doesn’t have a TV license and every time I have logged on to check its still active, which is has been, and called them to explain the situation. They’re always a bit confused and say they can see my license on the system and it must be an error on their system but not to worry as an agent wouldn’t actually visit.
I’ve just received another letter stating that an agent will be visiting on 15th March and I no longer believe they won’t attend.
I can’t call them until Monday at which point I’m going to stress that they are not to send an agent to my property when I’ve had a license for years but is it only me? Anyone else having this issue?

AIBU to demand they not send an agent? I know it wouldn’t take much for me to physically show them proof but why should I l? I’ve called them 6 or 7 times over this and I’m fed up of explaining it over and over again.

We have a TV but only watch streaming/youtube. We get the letters saying that we have to declare no licence, which we don, and then we get letters letting us know that we don’t have a licence.

I’m not sure what them coming round would prove, as we have a TV but don’t watch live TV. They also wouldn’t get a foot over my doorway, so would also be a wasted journey for them.

Why the hell should I faff about with all that? I've told them multiple times, it's not my problem to sort out. They told me they get their addresses from the Royal Mail database so I contacted them and they corrected it. Royal Mail only have one entry on their database now. TV licence people still think there are two houses, despite their agent seeing with his own eyes there is only one. I'm not doing any more work for them.

And if I cancel one licence and buy one for the other address, no doubt they'll start hounding me to buy a licence for the original one!

I has an unannounced visit from one of their men-in-a-van in the mid-90s, after years of letters. I had returned most of them with increasingly irate responses - it got to the green ink surrounded by red highlighter stage. He was a lovely man. I opened the downstairs front door (it was an upstairs flat) and invited him in and he said "I don't need to come in, I can tell from your manner that you don't have a TV". So I offered him a cup of tea and he told me wonderful tales of his adventures with lunatics who (having shouted "Sid! It's the TV licence bloke!") kept him talking on the doorstep while there was great crashing about indoors as they put the TV in the loft/garden/wherever and he eventually went in to find all the chairs facing a table with a strangely TV-shaped non-dusty area in the middle.

I never heard from them again, but I don't know how much leeway they give a property because I moved out about 3 years later.

Of course it's disgusting for goodness sake. Harassing elderly people and vulnerable women. They're arseholes and the letters are automated with no consideration as to who they're frightening. Can I not criticise the law? There are vulnerable women in prison over this shite.

I watch Netflix and amazon prime and constantly send back the letter saying so they still threaten me. I just return to sender now. BBC is SHIIIIIT

you are just shit stirring. i agree people should not have a go at peoples spelling and mine is not great and I also refuse to use a speller checker as its amaericnace. you had a go at the other poster to make you look good. you could have daily said something more polite or ignore it. even the op lol. you are indeed on a wind-up IMO

Post a photo of the letter.

It's VERY rare they say they'll actually visit, it's more often than not a load of sweaty dog bollocks that is designed to play on people's fear and misunderstandings.

The wording is slightly altered and says things like,
"We will visit on March 15th.." in big red letters followed by small black letters that read, "Or some other day, our inspectors work 7 days a week so can visit anytime, day or night"

A popular one they send is,
"WILL YOU BE IN ON MARCH 17TH?" in huge capital red letters. But then you open the letter and there's tiny black writing that says, "we.could visit you that day or some other day"

The people that visit work for Capita, the same company that ran the disability assessments that saw many people commit suicide after being found for for work when they weren't.

How anyone can work for Capita, or as a License Goon, is beyond me. they must have lower morals than a sewer Rat that's just stolen his Nans last bit of cheese. Utter Scum.

They're glorified sales people and have NO RIGHTS that any other sales person has.. you wouldn't Let Safe style in your house to check you've got Safe Style windows... Well you might, but that'd be weird..

If they turn up, tell them to sling their hook and shut the door.

And anyone else that might read this:
The only time BBC Licensing Goons / Capita Employees have any power at all is if they have a warrant signed by a judge, No Warrant, tell them to Fuck Off, scummy shitty pieces of scummy shit.. (I don't like them, can you tell?)

"Vulnerable" people are only in prison for breaking the law and then not paying the imposed court fine.

I don't see anything wrong with what they're doing - they're only enforcing the law. I think (from the stats) that most households have the ability to watch or record broadcasts and there is a process to follow if you're not...it's not that hard. If you have an issue with any individual then complain.

If you don't have a TV and don't need a licence the there is also a process to follow.

Many thanks to the person who sent me thanks. Much appreciated xxxx

Do you declare that you don't need a license?

Just curious as we have never had a license, we just complete the declaration confirming we don't need one once a year or whenever and have never heard anything from them.

They (Capita, who the BBC employs to do this) have no legal powers - it even says so on the TV Licensing website. They can threaten all they like but they have no right of entry. There’s a guy called Chilli Jon Carne (I think!) on YouTube who explains it all very well. I no longer require a licence (having held one for years) and I refuse to waste my time contacting them to explain my innocence (no other company/service requires this!) so their silly threatening letters go straight in the recycling. Their intimidation tactics are an absolute disgrace.

No, I blank them entirely. I prefer they don't have my name in the first place. If they want to piss money up the wall on letters addressed to the occupier, they can have at it.

I don't see anything wrong with what they're doing - they're only enforcing the law.

Really? You don’t see anything wrong with sending deeply threatening letters with no legal basis, or sending private sector heavies round to people’s houses to intimidate them?! “The law” doesn’t require anyone to declare that they don’t need a TV licence. There are lots of informative blogs/articles about this if you’re interested.

I don't see anything wrong with what they're doing - they're only enforcing the law

It's against the law to steal. Perhaps a private security firm should be able to come to your house and demand to come in and see proof that you bought everything in there? And in between send you threatening letters telling you they are coming to inspect your property?

No legal basis? It's a crime...

No legal basis? It's a crime...

Not needing a TV licence is not a crime 🤣 I don’t need one because I don’t watch TV. I am not legally required to declare this. Seriously, read the small print on their website.

We ought my mother in law a Freeview box back in the day, and had a huge battle with tv licencing, who insisted that my husband and I needed a licence each, plus I needed a second licence for MIL's address, alongside her licence.

I get these.
I've been living in this house 3 years, all registered, never received any in the past address of 25 years, as you don't actually get a paper licence any more as long as they're taking the monthly direct debit from my bank acount I'll assume I've got a TV licence

Not having a TV licence isn't a crime ffs

It's like the DVLA expecting me to declare I don't drive every year and sending people round my house to look for evidence of a car because I don't have a driving licence

I had one turn up years ago. Refused the guy entry. Made it very very clear to him that he was being recorded on multiple cctv cameras and basically told him to do one.
He had tried to put a foot in my front door hence me making him aware of the cameras. I then told him to go and get a more honourable job than harassing innocent people.

@Royalbloo

Do you work for tv licensing? Or just really love telly or something?

Of course it's not fucking illegal.

Ah the TV Licensing letters! I’ve been receiving one every couple of months since I moved in. We only watch streaming services and play video games so don’t actually need one. They run in a cycle, starting off quite gentle until every so often you get one in a Big Scary Red Envelope, and there’s the ones with ‘will you be in on xx date?’ - always straight in the bin. I don’t see why I should hand over my personal details (they always come addressed to ‘legal occupier’) to tell them I don’t want a service? Can’t think of any other situation where you have to do that.

They rely on people not understanding the rules around what you can and can’t watch without a TV license, and lots of people don’t fully understand (or my dad being one, he was adamant I was breaking laws by watching Netflix without a TV license and was shocked when I had him look into it).

They also rely on scary letters and threatening to turn up. The ‘detector vans’ they used to drive around also weren’t real.

They’re scummy. When my nan and her husband died, they sent a big bill because telling the TV Licensing they were dead wasn’t on our list of priorities. I recall my mom telling them dead people don’t watch much telly and hanging up the phone, we never paid it and I think they just gave up in the end.

Chances of them showing up are very slim, if they do you don’t have to let them in. Don’t stress on it.

https://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/check-if-you-need-one/topics/telling-us-you-dont-need-a-tv-licence

BBC will change to a subscription service like Netflix in the near future

Not relevant to the OP but for general awareness, it's also a common scam email. I get them quite a lot, but not to the email address TV Licensing have for me.

Never click an email link telling you to 'update your payment details' or 'if you have already paid, click here to let us know' to stop an enforcement officer coming round - it's a scam.

If you have any concerns about your licence payments, phone them.

We had constant letters when mum died. I informed everyone but still got regular threats from tv licensing and bizarrely spec savers, despite calling them.

I didn’t even think that tv licensing was a thing anymore oooooops lol I haven’t watched live tv for years though tbh it’s all Disney plus and Netflix in our house and I watch everything on my phone due to my terrible eyesight!