Court summon for tv licence

TheRiverman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120183448#Comment_120183448

Remember it is a broadcasting licence which legally allows you to have a device namely a TV that can receive both audio and video data, so regardles whether you watch RTE or not you are still breaking the law if you do not pay it. It's ridiculous,especially in this day and age, but that's the way it is. I detest paying it, always have, but I do it to avoid getting summonsed.

FlyingMoose

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121433266#Comment_121433266

No he didn't take my picture. It was 6 months ago and I'd be shocked if anyone could remember me from a 5 second interaction. Plus even if he had my picture that would be GDPR breach so unlikely. My theory is they've issued a summons for someone who doesn't exist. If I show up to court, there's going to be no record of me needing to be there. I may or may not have a TV License then. Not inclined to given the RTE scandal. Or I don't show up and a Garda comes to the door looking for someone that doesn't exist and I present a Tv license or not. I'm no solicitor but I'm pretty sure you can't issue a court summons under an incorrect name. Thanks for your reply.

FlyingMoose

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121433632#Comment_121433632

As per the court summons, it's my alias that's breaking the law. They've no idea who I am. The summons may as well be for Joe Bloggs. If I don't show, play the cat and mouse game for another 6 months, what are the consequences other than maybe being morally reprehensible and doing RTE out of 160 quid towards a few flip flops.

SteM

So you gave a similar name but not your own to the license inspector? How close to your own name was it?

Get Real

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121432424#Comment_121432424

You got several reminders/basically warnings to pay and you didn't. Now you're in this uncertain situation. Is it worth the hassle over 160quid?

Tbh I'd go to court, when whatever name you gave is called, tell the judge "that's me, I'm the householder, inspector might have taken my name down wrong" and hopefully you'll just have to pay what you owed anyway.

Trying to avoid/ignoring it might not matter a bit if you're the householder at the end of the day and they go enforcing it on you. Then in another few months you'll be wondering about an increased fine addressed to Joe Blogs and what to do with it. A

raclle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121433427#Comment_121433427

Over 100k have stopped paying it and Varadkar wants to reform it in the new year meaning more tax.

FlyingMoose

The likely scenario for me here is I'll pay the 160 in the new year before the court date. Call up the number on the bottom of the summons - explain there's no person at the address by that name and that there is a tv license for the property and take it from there. Defo not worth the hassle for 160e but I don't believe it's worth the hassle for them to go an try to find and fine the person responsible and drag this through the courts, especially when the people running RTE have been milking the public for years and not one person has been held accountable. I appreciate i can't take the moral high ground here but neither can RTE.

FlyingMoose

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121434978#Comment_121434978

Same first name, wildly different last name.

billyhead

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121435427#Comment_121435427

It's always worth the hassle for them. The more people convicted for not paying the better for them.

Strumms

The TV license is by tens of millions RTÈ’s most lucrative revenue stream.

2021 figures as published by RTÈ…

Commercial Revenue: 148.3 million

License Fee: 196.1 million

Total Revenue : 344.4 million

so there really isn’t any method I’d imagine of cancelling that almost 200 million in license fees and replacing it with more commercial revenue or something else. Really no way to make up that shortfall that I can see…

rightmove

surely they know ppl have just stopped paying the fee so they need to come up with something quick

Slightly Kwackers

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120183448#Comment_120183448

This seems fair but legally?

I never watched much TV in the UK or here, but in the UK you have to be found watching TV broadcasts. I never had a licence for years there incidentally and indeed found that unlike here, you can have a TV with a tuner and could not be under threat from the cash grabbers if you only watched satellite or a medium outside the range of broadcast TV.

There was an anomaly though where someone was taken to court for using a colour video to record yet they only had a black and white TV.

I have a licence here, but resent paying. I only watch RTE news but very rarely now text has gone. I found scrolling through the headlines in the morning perfect.

The adverts mean that any entertainment on RTE is out, I can usually get an advert free version pretty easily,

So If the purpose of the licence is to support RTE, why should I pay and why has no one challenged the forced payments?

Were I to stop watching RTE in total it would be no loss, the material for the most part seems to have fallen off in quality and I would have no problem removing the aerial which unlike the BBC oddly enough, removes the RTE broadcasts which need a subscription without a LNB and dish dedicated to getting RTE's satellite broadcasts.

Saorview seems more a free for all for anyone's cash rather than a "free" state service.

Why pay out for something you don't find value for money when you would happily reject it if given a choice?

At least the BBC didn't have adverts and there was a point where I found the BBC news good quality and seemingly unbiased and accurate, but those days are over.

So in short, what has been used as a successful argument to avoid a fine? I have no intention of disabling my Terrestrial tuners or removing the aerial if I still have to pay a rip off licence fee.

If they took the bloody adverts away it wouldn't be so bad, but I resent paying out the fee and being assaulted by garbage I have no interest in if I do try to watch anything.

Calahonda52

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120183448#Comment_120183448

Complete trolling and worth SFA to the OP.

The licence is for the device, not what you decide to watch

Slightly Kwackers

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121436928#Comment_121436928

-https://www.tvlicence.ie/home/tv-licence-home.html-

It may be the case, but nowhere in the blurp does it say that the licence fee is aimed at ownership benefits.

The imposition of the fee in this day and age is akin to having a tax on trainers to support the GAA and not taking into account the numbers of people that might use them for arthritis relief.

I would guess that the law was deliberately lax because there were none of the scores of detector vans that used to be used in the UK?

I notice that the UK approach seems to have changed from detecting the TV timebase and local oscillator to browbeating none licence payers.

I would guess that in the digital age trying to select a TV tuner local oscillator would be well nigh impossible, hence the popularity of sending the "heavies" around.

keithb93

Just write on the back of the summons that this person does not live at the address. Throw it back into the post box. I have done this before and a week later we got a normal letter addressed to the householder.

Slightly Kwackers

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121433698#Comment_121433698

Have you approached your TD?

There is a totally unfair aspect inasmuch as the advertising is used to supplement the forced cash extraction.

Surely if the programmes were that good, or the RTE people were efficient, then the licence fee would be seen as good value and the constant assault by infantile dross pushing would not not be needed?

I am sorely tempted to stop paying for the licence now text has gone. My standard approach to RTE programming now is to look up RTE player to see what is worth watching and download an advert free version for the odd programmes worth the effort.

I tend to wonder just how much technical effort they put into deciding what is a TV set. I gather a faulty unit must still be licenced, but if people can buy smartphones, how is the approach justified?

I cannot recollect using RTE for anything but the news for at least two years.

Claw Hammer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121434899#Comment_121434899

A summons can be issued under any name. All they have to do is associate you with that name. It is the name you were using for a period.

Gumbo

Here’s a current situation.

TV licence expired in February 2023.

She got a renewal notice in March 2023. Ignored, of course.

Today a summons arrived in the door with a man’s name on it. Court date for march 2024.

Mentions an inspection on 17th June 2023. Nobody home on the day so they obviously seen the TV through the front window.

The surname is correct but nobody in the family with that first name.

Appreciate opinions on what they should do.

Hotblack Desiato

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121437033#Comment_121437033

..

newmember2

I got a summons today for an offence dated last year - the day the inspector called into the new digs I was just after moving into. It's a family home and there is a TV, but I'm neither the home owner nor the TV owner, so cannot see how I'm even remotely liable.

ExoPolitic

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120187728#Comment_120187728

A conviction is not guaranteed, which courts have you been sitting in?!

elperello

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121855016#Comment_121855016

Have you discussed this with the home owner ?