I aint paid it for nearly 4 years anyway. All they do is send you a letter every now and again saying you will be investigated - which never happens.
Even if they knocked, they have to ask your permission before you let them in, and you can refuse them permission. They have to be refused permission on 3 seperate occasions before they can apply for a court warrant to enter your premises - they still need to know though, and you still need answer - they are not allowed to break and enter.
The fabled "detector vans" are a load of bollox as well.
I refuse to pay my license fee whilst the BBC waste so much money on the likes of Jonathan Ross etc, I don't mind the guy, but he, and nobody else on the BBC, is worth £12 million per year, or anything like that. If they can get it from a commercial broadcaster, then they can go and get it for all I care.
I'll stop paying for my TV licence when all the lawyers, solicitors, barristers and law judges stop getting theirs, because if those buggers are still getting them, then you know you need to have one. I can't see them getting one if legally they didn't have to.
God help us, Come yourself, Don't send Jesus, This is no place for children.
Bert - you have a valid point there. I had a trawl through one of the websites advocating non-payment etc. Whereas it "appears" to be a good wheez, how come no one has tried it on ? IF they have, I've not seen it reported in the press or on the idiot's lantern. Maybe have had a "D Notice" slapped on it ??
With the exception of our recent birthday girl (Hi.J.) most of the legal profession, being crooks in Zoot Suits, would have sussed out a way around it by now.
My girlfriend didn't pay her's. It's just a joke when she had a 14" TV used for playstation and we can't receive analogue signal here as a big hill blocked the signal. Anyway, a policeman turns up and arrests her and she's put in the cell overnight till her court hearing in the morning, but I came and paid to get her out (basically the amount of a TV licence). She pays it now, but I'd never do it if I had a TV as I can't warrant paying 120+ for what amounts to probably 10 hours worth of BBC per year, it's totally unbalanced and ridiculous. There's too many channels, and while I think BBC is probably the best, it's not value for money at all. I can't see the govt nationalising it, as it's a form of possible propaganda advertising for them.
Also, as said, the 'tracker vans' are a load of bollocks. How the govt can advertise such blatant lies. How can they possibly trace something that doesn't transmit anything?
Sorry guys, I knew two people who used to work on the tracker vans for the Home Office, I have also been in the vans and seen them work. That is going back 20 years ago.
TV's do transmit signals although fairly weak, but because of the relatively short distance to the detector van, they can be received.
To give you an idea of how sensitive equipment can be, I used to receive signals from a satellite that only had a ONE TENTH of a WATT transmitter using a small handheld receiver. The satellite was 540km above earth. I still have tapes I recorded of this satellite albeit these recordings were using slightly better equipment than the handheld unit, but these were receiving the satellite from distances of over 500 miles.
Whether the modern day detector vans are bluff or not, I do not know, it is interesting that one of the internet sites that claims the vans are bluff, also goes to some trouble to give details of what areas the vans are operating in.
We don't do charity in Germany, we pay taxes. Charity is a failure of governments' responsibilities - Henning Wehn
If you don't let them into your house to see you have a TV, and you write them a letter saying you don't have a TV, and you withdrawal their (I believe its called) 'assumed right of access' and you say you will request any further communication to cease, and any more letters you will take them to court over harrassment, I'm pretty sure they leave you alone... they have never had a successful prosecution using 'detector van' evidence alone, its always been their 'enforcement officers' seeing a TV in the window, or you letting them and them seeing a working TV in the house... might I also add, that if you only use a TV for DVD's and game consoles, de-tune your telly from all channels, manually tune each one to a frequency that doesn't receive any sound or picture, and tell them this, let them in to check the signals on each of the channels... make sure there's no antenna cable in the back... If they go through and search for a signal, or ask for you to plug the telly into an antenna, they are modifying the current installation and are therefore 'installing' equipment, enabling you to get TV. If you look carefully at the small print, the license fee is only required if you watch or record 'live' tv.... so if you can somehow delay the signal by 20 seconds, you wouldn't need to pay a license fee, nor would you need one if your TV was hooked up to a computer, and was used only for the BBC iPlayer, which shows recorded shows, not TV as its broadcast live.
I didn't pay my license fee for 3 years when I lived in my previous flat, as I never watched live TV, and used my telly for games, DVD's, and had it hooked up to the PC. And I had the telly licensing people in twice a year to check my channels, I eventually found out how to keep them away. Tell them you don't need one (they will want to check this but they don't have to. Why ask a question you aren't going to believe the answer to anyway?) Tell them they aren't welcome on your property. Tell them they are harassing you by sending further letters. Also something I said that might have helped, tell them that you have CCTV of your property, and their 'officers' visiting your house will have their pictures taken and posted all over the internet on anti-tv license websites.
I haven't heard from them in 6 months.
Alternatively, you can log into their website, and update your details... tell them you are moving overseas.... this will get your name off their register, which they will then send letters to 'the current occupier'.... which you can just ignore, they can't convict someone if they don't have a name. (you must remove your name from the public register with the council tax people if you want to go down this route...
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