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.

@WatchandWaitorNot why would I let him in? I don't want people I don't know in my home. I certainly don't want people who try to barge their way into my home in my home! I had nothing to hide and nothing to prove!

As a single woman I was not going to allow a man who was clearly willing to manhandle me and be abusive into my home no. I did tell him he was welcome to come back with a warrant if he chose to go to court to obtain one. He didn't.

”clearly going to manhandle me and be abusive”. Unlikely.

I wouldn't want them in my home if hubby wasn't about (not that I'd let them in anyway).
https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/9231206.tv-licence-man-jailed-rape/
https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/former-policeman-who-was-serial-paedophile-gets-life-1943224

I have it on cctv! Damn right he was!

But they have no right to enter without a warrant so why shouldn't doors be shut in their faces?

It's not okay for people who do not have the right to enter someone's house to forcibly stop someone from shutting the door on them. Once again this should not be hard to understand

It goes in cycles. The letters steadily get more threatening before reverting back to the start.

Just like it’s not the licence fee inspector’s fault that their system shows you as needing a licence and not having one

No that's the entire point. The system doesn't show people as "needing a licence and not having one" it just shows them as not having one. This presumption that someone must need one is all on them

Once again I have never been asked to prove that I don't need a driving licence, a pilots licence, a fishing licence, a gun licence, a CCTV licence etc

No one turns up every couple of years to demand entry to my house to search for fishing rods or guns etc

It's a bizarre system administrated by a company known for being unethical

That story isn’t about a man who raped a woman by using his position as a licensing inspector to enter her home. It is about a rapist whose job happened to be that of licensing inspector.

Terrible for the victim but completely irrelevant to what is being discussed here.

And as for the second story, we’d have to be living under a rock not to know that some police officers are dangerous individuals who abuse their positions. However it would be a complete overreaction to decide to resist any interaction with the police.

Seriously, what on earth is the point of behaving defensively when you have nothing to hide? What are you hoping to achieve?

Well yes, but that’s how the system works. The inspectors didn't design the system.

And as for the second story, we’d have to be living under a rock not to know that some police officers are dangerous individuals who abuse their positions. However it would be a complete overreaction to decide to resist any interaction with the police. It's not an overreaction to not let police officers search your home without a warrant. That's just good advice.

And we are here talking about the system

And where the system includes employees who overstep their bounds by trying to force their way into people's houses we are talking about that

But no one is actually suggesting anyone does anything untoward to any inspectors so I'm not sure why we are expected to care about them

And again capita have been shown to operate in an unethical way to to target vulnerable people. Now employees of capita can say "I was just doing what I was told" but that's not a good way to live your life. Sometimes bad things happen because good people do nothing.

The second man (Lishman) had also been a TV licence inspector. The Middlesbrough rapist had been out on his TV Licensing rounds at the time he entered the woman's house.

Not really. Unless you have something to hide. Honestly, TV dramas have a lot to answer for.

Ah ok sorry. All TV Licensing inspectors are rapists. I imagine they recruit them at the prison exit. Also, all GPs are serial killers and all male teachers are child porn addicts. Thank goodness these very common things still get reported properly in the media!

No, of course they're not all rapists. No-one has said they are. But they aren't all entirely honest, upstanding citizens either. Nor are TV Licensing's recruitment and vetting procedures infallible. If you'd be happy to let someone in your home, who has no legal right to enter, then that's entirely a decision for you. I certainly wouldn't.

What a lot of tosh. Home is a person's sanctuary, not a place to be accosted by anyone who decides they have access to it whenever.

You've made some shockingly silly remarks; an inspector attempted to forcibly enter a PP's home by blocking the door with his foot. You went on to state he wouldn't have behaved in a threatening way if allowed entry. But he already had! I'm a bit confused as to why you're so passionate about trying to convince women to admit bullying salesmen into their homes whenever they come a-knocking.

I'd forgotten how much MNers hate TVL😄 ✊

I said that if people in general tended to allow entry instead of resisting by default, he would not have to approach every new visit with that experience in mind and pre-empt a door in the face.

But he doesn't have a right of entry and therefore people have the right to resist by default and he still doesn't have the right to preempt that by forcibly stopping someone closing their door

@WatchandWaitorNot

These people do not have the legal right to put a foot in someone's door. What do you not understand about that?

It is irrelevant why someone shuts the door on them or your opinions on that. They overstep a line putting a foot over the threshold when they haven't been invited. It's disgraceful. They are nothing more than hired goons. The only other person to do the same to me and out a foot into my home as I shut the door on them was about insane neighbour. The police were called and we eventually moved house because of their behaviour.

I've seen threads on Mumsnet about this topic before and I am always astounded by some posters who bend over backwards to defend such behaviour.

We get it. You love the BBC.

Can I search your house? With my friends? I have no legal right either, but if you are happy for the police and/or tv licensing inspectors to trash your house (you know they don’t put everything back neatly, don’t you?) why not random members of the public? If you have nothing to hide?

Only a gullible idiot would allow a search of their property by somebody with no legal right to do so. The police do not have carte blanche to enter your home and search it, for very good reason - the warrant process is a legal protection, and the police and TVL need to follow it.

Seriously, you think anyone who gets a job with Capita should have the right to force entry into anyone’s home, anywhere, for no reason whatsoever and to search it? Are you mad?

That is such a basic principle of civil liberties that I am horrified anyone thinks it should just be torn up, and “the state”, or even just fucking Capita, should have the right to do whatever they want, whenever they want. Do you want to live under the Stasi?

Not sure if I have missed something but why would you need to invite them in if you have a tv license? Just get the license and show it to them.

Due to the bill being in the name of the Occupier, you are not liable for the debt. A previous owner/ tennant is liable and the letters will stop when the licensing authority finds the culprit.

No action can ever be taken against you because the outstanding balance is someone else's nightmare and not yours.

Thankfully, you have covered yourself by having your own TV License which you continue to pay so you are exempt from it.

They should have explained this to you as legally, they can not pursue you for the outstanding balance because it was for a time BEFORE you moved in and you have your licence so if they send someone round to check, then show them your own license.

So don't worry about it.

Hope this helps.