TV Licence - ALL TV licence discussion/queries in this thread.

Monaco1989

So, I got a letter to the house saying "Dear occupier, the TV licence inspector was unable to gain attention at this address today. According to our records blah blah blah.... Please ensure a licence is taken out within 5 working days to prevent further action being taken. ".

I decided I'd better sort it out. I don't have the money currently to pay the €160 outright, however I saw that it can be paid by DD of €13.33 a month. However, according to their website:

Your TV Licence records office must receive the completed Direct Debit application and mandate forms before the 15th of the month in order to commence payment in the following month. If your application forms are received after the 15th of the month, the Direct Debit agreement will not be set up until the month after it was received e.g. application received on the 21st June will be set up in July and payment will commence on the 3rd working day of August.

So for example if I was to post off the forms today, I wouldn't have a licence until June due to the (ridiculous) fact that they only process DD forms once a month. Does anyone have any experience as to where this leaves me? As in if I set up the mandate today and the inspector happens to call at any point between now and June are we liable to be summoned/fined?

Cheers for any info.

benny79

Monaco1989 wrote: »

So, I got a letter to the house saying "Dear occupier, the TV licence inspector was unable to gain attention at this address today. According to our records blah blah blah.... Please ensure a licence is taken out within 5 working days to prevent further action being taken. ".

I decided I'd better sort it out. I don't have the money currently to pay the ?160 outright, however I saw that it can be paid by DD of ?13.33 a month. However, according to their website:

Your TV Licence records office must receive the completed Direct Debit application and mandate forms before the 15th of the month in order to commence payment in the following month. If your application forms are received after the 15th of the month, the Direct Debit agreement will not be set up until the month after it was received e.g. application received on the 21st June will be set up in July and payment will commence on the 3rd working day of August.

So for example if I was to post off the forms today, I wouldn't have a licence until June due to the (ridiculous) fact that they only process DD forms once a month. Does anyone have any experience as to where this leaves me? As in if I set up the mandate today and the inspector happens to call at any point between now and June are we liable to be summoned/fined?

Cheers for any info.

Hi Monaco,

That is a scare tactic letter! I got loads of them for years 12 to be exact.. They need the occupier's name to actually summons you to court. So I would ignore it and not pay until they actually call and your in! then they will agree a set time to pay it.. but you will have to pay it in full or DD.

I only got caught this year as my tenant answered the door and give my name! As I live in a commuter town I am never there when they call. I got a letter saying I have 7 days to pay or Im going to court etc.. Rang them told them I get paid by the month agreed to pay it in 4 weeks actually ended up been 6 no hassle they are grand about payment once they know or you agree to pay etc..

Rathmineser

Sorry if some of the stuff I'm saying is quite obvious, but hopefully somebody on this thread can help me out.

We have received a letter to our apartment today with the 28 day pay-up warning (addressed to The Occupier, not our names), having had no previous notice at all about requiring a TV licence. We don't watch RTÉ, and neither of our two televisions receive a TV signal without an aerial (we don't have an aerial, and we don't watch TV on either of them, they are solely for Netflix and video games). The tuners for both TVs do not function without an external appliance. We don't subscribe to any TV service and only have broadband. Is this enough grounds not to pay?

We think we may have to pay anyway, but our bigger problem is that we are leaving the country in 4 months to move to the UK and don't want to pay €160 for four months of something useless to us. Does anyone know if Direct Debit can be agreed for a temporary amount of time, or do we have to pay up in full?

Thanks in advance if you have an help you could offer!

Fred Swanson

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Rathmineser

Fred Swanson wrote: »

Why would you pay if you are not liable?

That's the problem - we are not entirely sure if we are liable or not? We've had no experience with this before so if this is a stupid question sorry!

Fred Swanson

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elperello

Get rid of the two tellys and contact them to say you have no telly.

Fred Swanson

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benny79

Rathmineser wrote: »

Sorry if some of the stuff I'm saying is quite obvious, but hopefully somebody on this thread can help me out.

We have received a letter to our apartment today with the 28 day pay-up warning (addressed to The Occupier, not our names), having had no previous notice at all about requiring a TV licence. We don't watch RT?, and neither of our two televisions receive a TV signal without an aerial (we don't have an aerial, and we don't watch TV on either of them, they are solely for Netflix and video games). The tuners for both TVs do not function without an external appliance. We don't subscribe to any TV service and only have broadband. Is this enough grounds not to pay?

We think we may have to pay anyway, but our bigger problem is that we are leaving the country in 4 months to move to the UK and don't want to pay ?160 for four months of something useless to us. Does anyone know if Direct Debit can be agreed for a temporary amount of time, or do we have to pay up in full?

Thanks in advance if you have an help you could offer!

Read the post above you original post the answer is there

gizmo81

I just want to get an opinion,

We moved into a new house last year, there were a few of the occupier letters sent from An Post. We had a TV but no service, my OH about a month into our lease got his mail redirected and a week or so later a letter from An Post about the TV licence came.

When we installed Virgin we did purchase a DD licence.

However, I just wondered An Post don't read the residents of regular mail but because he accessed an An Post service they were able to use this data.

Is this a legitimate practice?

Capt'n Midnight

gizmo81 wrote: »

However, I just wondered An Post don't read the residents of regular mail but because he accessed an An Post service they were able to use this data.

Is this a legitimate practice?

An Post have get a tenner out of the licence fee.

They have been using the names on post sent to the address since the 1980's so wouldn't be surprised. And if it's buried in the terms and conditions or in law somewhere there's no comeback. To give you an idea , Cablelink and RTV rentals used to have to send the names and addresses of their customers in so they could check they were paying a TV Licence.

elperello

Sorry if this has been answered before, I'm not a regular here.

An old pre-Saorview tv can't receive a signal without a Saorview or satellite box so do you need a licence if you have one in the house?

Fred Swanson

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elperello

Fred Swanson wrote: »

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Thanks for the info.
Why is that when there is no signal it can pick up?

ps. just teasing it out I actually have a licence

Fred Swanson

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elperello

Fred Swanson wrote: »

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But is there anywhere in Ireland that still has an analogue signal?

Fred Swanson

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elperello

Thanks again for bearing with me.

I looked up the Broadcasting Act 2009 Section 140 and found this -

“ television set ” means any electronic apparatus capable of receiving and exhibiting television broadcasting services broadcast for general reception (whether or not its use for that purpose is dependent on the use of anything else in conjunction with it) and any software or assembly comprising such apparatus and other apparatus;

I suppose that's that then. They appear to have it covered and even though your TV can't receive a signal on it's own you still need a licence because it will work in conjunction with a satellite or Saorview box.

I think it's a bit harsh. It's a bit like if there was still a radio licence and they insisted on you having a licence for an old Medium Wave set.

Sam Russell

elperello wrote: »

But is there anywhere in Ireland that still has an analogue signal?

The Virgin cable has an analogue signal. Even if you do not have Virgin, the set has a tuner, and you are required to have a license. As far as I am aware, no court has been asked to determine if an analogue only TV does not need a licence. You could try and be the test case.

Sam Russell

elperello wrote: »

I think it's a bit harsh. It's a bit like if there was still a radio licence and they insisted on you having a licence for an old Medium Wave set.

Actually, and old MW set would have LW and RTE still broadcast on that (for the time being) so if radios needed a licence, such a set would need one.

elperello

Sam Russell wrote: »

The Virgin cable has an analogue signal. Even if you do not have Virgin, the set has a tuner, and you are required to have a license. As far as I am aware, no court has been asked to determine if an analogue only TV does not need a licence. You could try and be the test case.

I didn't know that Virgin signal was analogue but I presume you'd need a Virgin apparatus as well as the telly to receive the broadcast. I just think that if someone has an old telly in the house but no way of getting a signal they should not need a licence.

Ah I won't be bothering the wigs over this, my tilting at windmills days are over!!

elperello

Sam Russell wrote: »

Actually, and old MW set would have LW and RTE still broadcast on that (for the time being) so if radios needed a licence, such a set would need one.

I meant a MW only set.Sloppy comparison on my part.

elperello

http://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/ireland/tv-licence-fee-wont-apply-to-pcs-laptops-and-tablets-788265.html

Whatever about ancient radios and tellys it looks like we won't need a licence for the laptop.

Sam Russell

elperello wrote: »

I didn't know that Virgin signal was analogue but I presume you'd need a Virgin apparatus as well as the telly to receive the broadcast. I just think that if someone has an old telly in the house but no way of getting a signal they should not need a licence.

Ah I won't be bothering the wigs over this, my tilting at windmills days are over!!

If you have Virgin BB, all you need to do is put the cable directly into the aerial input of the analogue only TV and tune it and you will be able to watch 16 or so channels inc RTE, BBC, ITV, TV3 and Ch4.

So yes, a TV licence is required.

ct5amr2ig1nfhp

12.5million and only 40 inspectors? How on Earth is it costing that much to collect? Ffs.

brightspark

Lucca Brief Gargoyle wrote: »

12.5million and only 40 inspectors? How on Earth is it costing that much to collect? Ffs.

I'm guessing it costs money to send out each reminder (I've been guilty of forgetting to pay until a third reminder lands on the doormat).

Also processing each payment probably has an additional cost.

Elmo

brightspark wrote: »

I'm guessing it costs money to send out each reminder (I've been guilty of forgetting to pay until a third reminder lands on the doormat).

Mmmm lets just think of what economies of scale a Post Office might use to send out reminder letters!

Dodkrake

Hi all,

I recently moved to Ireland and just recently got a letter from an post about the TV license in the place I live. I did some digging through local law on this and have a couple of questions that you may be able to get back to me on. First, important data on my case:

1. I live in a Room in a temporary accomodation Hostel. It's somewhat of a shared house but we're on monthly contracts and you can actually let for a couple of weeks if you wish.

2. Nobody in the shared accomodation got the letter but me;

3. The letter had my name claiming that the whole house was not on the records for a TV License.

My question is related to a) am I liable to pay TV license in a shared house with 30 other people when I'm not even an actual tenent? I'm living in something closer to an hotel than an actual house or apartment and b) how did they get my address? Is it not a breach in Irish data protection? I'm registered in Revenue, Welfare and my bank with this address but I never provided my data to post. My mail mostly goes to my work address as well because it's more convenient.

Thanks for your help.

PS: I do have a TV with Freeview connection and I'm not claiming that I refuse to pay this, but I don't see how fair is it that I've been here a couple of months and have to pay TV tax on shared accomodation where most people own a TV and nobody got notified.

PS2: Personal opinion, it's ridiculous that I have to pay "RTE Tax" to watch netflix and play PS4, but law is law!

Johnboy1951

It is a licence to posses a device or devices covered by the licence.
You posses a TV then you pay the licence.

Why do not not already have a licence if you are not refusing to get one?

Dodkrake

I'm not sure you fully read what I mentioned. I'm in an hostel, temporary accomodation. Also, the full house is shared by about 30 people, some that have been there for more than 2 years and haven't got a notification for a TV license. Finally, they have my name, which breaches the Data Protection laws in Ireland as I never provided an post with my details. Why would I need to have a TV license in this particular case? That's what I'm trying to understand. Also, since my license would cover the whole house, why do I need to pay for it when everyone else has got a TV and no notification on it?

Edit: Called the services, the house has got a TV license so I don't need to pay. The owner pays it and it covers the whole area.