Tv license notice of legal proceedings

shivermetimber

An inspector recently called to the house as the housemate was leaving and he was asked if he was me. During the chat he stupidly gave him his name. He now got a notice of legal proceedings in his name stating the inspector visited and found him in possession of an unlicensed tv set. No post from them in his name before this, no other notices or legal declaration forms etc.

The inspector never came into the house at all though and we live upstairs so he cannot see into the place When he asked him about a tv in the house he just said he uses internet and not sure for the rest as the house is broken into 3 separate apartments.

There is only information stating to purchase a licence for 160 within 7 days or if you do already have one to contact them. Do we just contact them to say we don't have a tv in the house, which we don't, or do we just wait for a following declaration form or something? Can they really take you to court for something untrue that cannot be proven?

CeilingFly

If you don't have a tv you can follow fill in a statutory declaration

http://www.anpost.ie/AnPost/MainContent/Personal+Customers/More+from+An+Post/TV+Licence/TV+Licence+Forms.htm

If you do have a tv, do not fill this in as penalties for false declaration are fairly severe and its also seen as a criminal offence which can cause many other issues for years

shivermetimber

CeilingFly wrote: »

If you don't have a tv you can follow fill in a statutory declaration

http://www.anpost.ie/AnPost/MainContent/Personal+Customers/More+from+An+Post/TV+Licence/TV+Licence+Forms.htm

If you do have a tv, do not fill this in as penalties for false declaration are fairly severe and its also seen as a criminal offence which can cause many other issues for years

Thanks, just what I was looking for! Do they then come out and inspect the apartment and then stop sending you threatening letters?

LionelNashe

shivermetimber wrote: »

Thanks, just what I was looking for! Do they then come out and inspect the apartment and then stop sending you threatening letters?

In my experience, they'll continue to send notices every year or every second year and expect you to fill the declaration in again. Last time a guy called to my door, I hadn't sent off the latest form, and he asked to come in, and I said fine. He barely came into the hallway though, and he saw a computer on a desk. He was happy with that and he left. I could have had 10 TVs on the other side of the room and he wouldn't have known.

shivermetimber

LionelNashe wrote: »

In my experience, they'll continue to send notices every year or every second year and expect you to fill the declaration in again. Last time a guy called to my door, I hadn't sent off the latest form, and he asked to come in, and I said fine. He barely came into the hallway though, and he saw a computer on a desk. He was happy with that and he left. I could have had 10 TVs on the other side of the room and he wouldn't have known.

Thanks, I suspected as much :rolleyes:

So do we think it's ok to just fill out this form, send it in and they will write off the legal proceedings and amend their system / come out and check or will they say 'well our fella said in his notes that you had a tv so you have to pay or go to court?

Wexfordboy89

shivermetimber wrote: »

An inspector recently called to the house as the housemate was leaving and he was asked if he was me. During the chat he stupidly gave him his name. He now got a notice of legal proceedings in his name stating the inspector visited and found him in possession of an unlicensed tv set. No post from them in his name before this, no other notices or legal declaration forms etc.

The inspector never came into the house at all though and we live upstairs so he cannot see into the place When he asked him about a tv in the house he just said he uses internet and not sure for the rest as the house is broken into 3 separate apartments.

There is only information stating to purchase a licence for 160 within 7 days or if you do already have one to contact them. Do we just contact them to say we don't have a tv in the house, which we don't, or do we just wait for a following declaration form or something? Can they really take you to court for something untrue that cannot be proven?

My mam told me the other day they drive around in a van with some kind of aerial and it can pick up if your getting a tv signal.she was wondering what the van was as it looked funny.a few days later a tv licence guy was going around luckily my mam has one.

shivermetimber

Wexfordboy89 wrote: »

My mam told me the other day they drive around in a van with some kind of aerial and it can pick up if your getting a tv signal.she was wondering what the van was as it looked funny.a few days later a tv licence guy was going around luckily my mam has one.

I'm pretty sure that's an urban legend..

Mech1

But is "pretty sure" sure enough?

TheChizler

shivermetimber wrote: »

I'm pretty sure that's an urban legend..

The BBC certainly did, there's an example of one of their old vans with massive aerial on the roof in the science museum in London. They pick up the intermediate frequencies generated by a TV tuner. Not sure how effective they are at detecting modern tuners. Don't think RTE or An Post ever got into it though.

ED E

Wexfordboy89 wrote: »

My mam told me the other day they drive around in a van with some kind of aerial and it can pick up if your getting a tv signal.she was wondering what the van was as it looked funny.a few days later a tv licence guy was going around luckily my mam has one.

Total crap.

Wexfordboy89

shivermetimber wrote: »

I'm pretty sure that's an urban legend..

I dunno she said they drove around a few times slow aswell.Wouldn't surpise me tbh

Sleeper12

Wexfordboy89 wrote:

My mam told me the other day they drive around in a van with some kind of aerial and it can pick up if your getting a tv signal.she was wondering what the van was as it looked funny.a few days later a tv licence guy was going around luckily my mam has one.

There was an ad on tv back in the 70s with a van like this. I don't think it was real. I think it was to scare people

Wexfordboy89

ED E wrote: »

Total crap.

Possibly is i dont know if i was around i wojld have took a picture of the van and posted it.

Sadb

Wexfordboy89 wrote: »

Possibly is i dont know if i was around i wojld have took a picture of the van and posted it.

Could have been the google street view car, more likely than a tv licence inspector van anyhow! The inspectors call to places that don't have a licence, it really is that simple.

Wexfordboy89

Sadb wrote: »

Could have been the google street view car, more likely than a tv licence inspector van anyhow! The inspectors call to places that don't have a licence, it really is that simple.

Probably was she just said she had never seen anything like it before they stopped a few times and drove off again.

GM228

TheChizler wrote: »

The BBC certainly did, there's an example of one of their old vans with massive aerial on the roof in the science museum in London. They pick up the intermediate frequencies generated by a TV tuner. Not sure how effective they are at detecting modern tuners. Don't think RTE or An Post ever got into it though.

Indeed the vans are real.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/1/newsid_2521000/2521357.stm

Such detector vans are still in use in the UK and legislated for.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2001/1057/article/2/made





And in Ireland:-

https://www.google.ie/amp/s/www.irishtimes.com/news/consumer/a-clear-picture-the-truth-and-myths-about-the-tv-licence-1.1619843%3fmode=amp

The van is as real as the tooth fairy

I assume the tooth fairy is real?

shivermetimber

It's Ireland, we would know if the magical detector van actually existed rather then being the legend it is. Plus how can they pinpoint signals for apartments or houses broken into multiple flats which the majority of cities here are. I call bull****. Anyway this point is slightly off topic..

GhostyMcGhost

I saw a very suspect van outside my house earlier....

That reminds me, I must renew my licence

Right2Write

LionelNashe wrote: »

In my experience, they'll continue to send notices every year or every second year and expect you to fill the declaration in again.

Been there, done that. We had a TV and licence once, then lived without it for a few years and despite writing back each time, we kept getting reminders and threats. Later we acquired a new TV and licence.

The only people with TVs and no licences who don't seem to get hassled are those where An Post have no records. Once a TV has been licenced at a particular address, that triggers their protocols.

IMHO, An Post should be stripped of the contract to administer this scheme. It should be handed over to a company prepared to implement it as intended and not in the lazy, inept manner that An Post put in.

CeilingFly

Right2Write wrote: »

IMHO, An Post should be stripped of the contract to administer this scheme. It should be handed over to a company prepared to implement it as intended and not in the lazy, inept manner that An Post put in.

It's currently out for tender.

coylemj

It might have been possible in the 70s, they certainly had vans with impressive 'antennae' on the roof and whether they were a bluff or not isn't really the issue here but modern TVs use one or two watts max. on standby and emit no radiation whatsoever that could be detected from outside the house. All your TV is doing on standby is 'listening' for an infrared signal from your remote.

GM228

CeilingFly wrote: »

It's currently out for tender.

No it's not.

There has been suggestions of such, but it requires legislative changes if it is to happen.

Not sure if there is anything in relation to this in the Broadcasting (Amendment) Bill 2017.

Mr Meanor

The detector vans were real and did work.
They picked up the high voltage line oscillator signals on older CRT sets and could pinpoint the sets location fairly accurately.
This means of detection however came to an end with flat panel LCD and LED panels.

I love people who call these things out, probably think mankind didn't go to the moon either....this is basic engineering folks.

dev100

shivermetimber wrote:

An inspector recently called to the house as the housemate was leaving and he was asked if he was me. During the chat he stupidly gave him his name. He now got a notice of legal proceedings in his name stating the inspector visited and found him in possession of an unlicensed tv set. No post from them in his name before this, no other notices or legal declaration forms etc.

shivermetimber wrote:

There is only information stating to purchase a licence for 160 within 7 days or if you do already have one to contact them. Do we just contact them to say we don't have a tv in the house, which we don't, or do we just wait for a following declaration form or something? Can they really take you to court for something untrue that cannot be proven?

What exactly came thru the post ? Just contact them via email and use any reference applicable that came in the letter to the house mate and tell them you don't own a TV or a device capable of receiving a TV signal. Don't buy a license !!!

Fred Swanson

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Fred Swanson

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MysticMonk

I was getting letters adressed to "the resident" at my adresss since I bought my house 15 years ago. As soon as I started getting them with my own name on them I got a licence..I had heard from a friend of my sister being fined 2k almost on the spot.

Deagol

Fred Swanson wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

I love people who think that everything is a conspiracy and that the some identifiable 'they' is out get the 'masses'.

Not my side of engineering so I don't have the full brief but:
TV detector vans are quite real or at least were. CRT based TV's required high voltages of +35kV to operate and at relatively high frequencies. Nothing else in your house (bar Microwave ovens) would operate at those voltages and certainly not those frequencies.

Sensitive, directional antennae would have no problem picking operating TV's out. Not sure how directionally accurate they would be, I would think apartment blocks would present a problem. But individual houses could easily be identified.

Of course nowadays, LCD/LED TV's don't use this technology so no high voltage to detect etc. Though I understand that LED screens use lower voltages but still high frequencies for scanning, so not outside the realms of possiblity you could detect them with a different system? Perhaps someone with greater knowledge of LED screen technology might correct me?!

The law would need to change though to include all receiving devices before that would become an effective way to detect illicit receiving of TV signals!

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

L1011

Mr Meanor wrote: »

The detector vans were real and did work.
They picked up the high voltage line oscillator signals on older CRT sets and could pinpoint the sets location fairly accurately.
This means of detection however came to an end with flat panel LCD and LED panels.

I love people who call these things out, probably think mankind didn't go to the moon either....this is basic engineering folks.

Detecting CRT flyback was of little use in dense areas and became useless at "detecting" a TV the second home computers started in the 1970s. They were a scare tactic, nothing more.

Once you know enough about engineering to know how they work you also see how they couldn't work

NinetyTwoTeam

The only detection used is visual, ie: if there is a dish or aerial visible or they can see a telly through the window.

In college I lived in an apartment complex with 2 lads and someone had let the TV inspector in, a neighbor warned us he was going around while we were in the middle of a FIFA tournament. We took the telly and PlayStation and stuck it in a closet. When the inspector knocked we answered the door and told him there was no TV. He asked to have a look, we let him in, there was a TV stand in the corner, three chairs facing it, and an obvious outline of dust where the telly had been sitting. He seen all that but just gave us a sarcastic look and said, 'Right lads,' and went on his merry way, never heard anything else. No declaration form was needed or mentioned, I reckon they don't want people knowing about them.

shivermetimber

Well we've got the declaration form sorted and will be sending it in. They can amend their details and come inspect if they want. Not paying for anything that shouldn't have to.