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A driving license is something you are awarded after passing a test to prove your driving is up to a certain standard.

 

before i passed my test the DVLA didn't write to me and ask me to prove i don't have a car.

 

If you drive a car on the road without a license you are a danger to others.

 

If you watch TV without a license you are naughty but you probably won't kill me!

 

ie i care if you have a driving license but not so much a TV license.

Edited by narrowboatham
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A driving license is something you are awarded after passing a test to prove your driving is up to a certain standard.

 

before i passed my test the DVLA didn't write to me and ask me to prove i don't have a car.

 

If you drive a car on the road without a license you are a danger to others.

 

If you watch TV without a license you are naughty but you probably won't kill me!

 

ie i care if you have a driving license but not so much a TV license.

The simple fact is the TV license is a license to operate certain types of equipment. If you want to operate that equipment you buy the license if you don't you don't need the license.

 

If it was kept in mind that it is a license to operate equipment and the authorities choose to use the money raised in a particular way people might (note might) understand why they need one more easily. The attitude tends to be that because the money is used for the BBC the license is for receiving BBC broadcasts. It isn't it is for operating the equipment, for any channel.

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I may have told this story before:

 

When I first moved to Bath in 2005, I decided not to but a TV, I was short of money, and the cost of a TV plus the cost of the licence seemed pointless. Nevertheless I got the usual "we note you have no TV licence". I politely responded I didn't have a TV either.

 

This escalated until I got a letter seeking to interview me under police caution for licence evasion. I went ballistic: a ballistic Magpie does not go in with fists flying, the weapon of choice is carefully selected facts with well crafted words, words that pointed out the number of homes with no TV as a percentage of homes with no TV licence (around 50% then) and the number of prosecutions that had failed, which was over 10%.

 

I got a letter of profuse apology and a promise I'd be left alone for at least two years, but they also denied that they simply went after people with no licence (Ha! really? So what was their problem with me?)

 

At about the same time a colleague went through a similar process, he found his threatening letter taped to the front door of his house: taped because the letter box had been sealed as the house had been gutted by fire six months earlier and the insurance was still being processed, the family were in rented accommodation ten miles away. His letter to them was even more stinking than mine!

 

Finally, I had to get a licence for my first wife as she had a small TV at work, to watch when she was hanging around to give the evening lectures which started at 8pm. Even back then, the 1990's this was problematic, as her office address didn't exist in the licence database. In the end the woman behind the counter just filled out by hand "Julia Edwards, office E107, Reynaults Building...". Apparently the TVLA wouldn't be able to process the licence but, if challenged, Julia was in the clear.

Edited by magpie patrick
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The simple fact is the TV license is a license to operate certain types of equipment. If you want to operate that equipment you buy the license if you don't you don't need the license.

 

Quite. Although they don't make it easy to buy a license for a mobile thing like a boat or a motorhome, if you can't find a way to buy one, you can't legally watch live broadcast TV on your boat.

 

As I understood it if I had a TV license at my house, this would cover me using a TV in my car or boat. Certainly that used to be the situation with car radios when one needed a license for a radio as well as a TV.

 

I'm not sure that buying a license to cover TV reception at your C/O address would count should push come to shove, as the C/O is not where you live.

 

MtB

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Quite. Although they don't make it easy to buy a license for a mobile thing like a boat or a motorhome, if you can't find a way to buy one, you can't legally watch live broadcast TV on your boat.

 

As I understood it if I had a TV license at my house, this would cover me using a TV in my car or boat. Certainly that used to be the situation with car radios when one needed a license for a radio as well as a TV.

 

I'm not sure that buying a license to cover TV reception at your C/O address would count should push come to shove, as the C/O is not where you live.

 

MtB

 

The TV licence for you house covers use on you boat with no complications at all, from TV licencing's second home section

 

You don’t need a separate TV Licence for

Any device powered solely by its own internal batteries (i.e. it is not connected to an aerial or plugged into the mains). Your main home’s TV Licence will cover this.

Boats, touring caravans or vehicles as they’re already covered by your main home’s TV Licence.

Static caravans, mobile homes or moveable chalets. Your main home’s TV Licence will cover you provided you don’t watch TV in both homes at the same time. In this case you would need to complete a declaration form .

 

I don't think there is anything specific described about the case of living on a boat and using another address for you contact info, but there is certainly no issue with multiple people have a TV licence at the same address, as is explained in the case of lodgers, where the lodger needs their own TV licence if they have a TV in their room.

 

From previous discussion on here is seems to be the case that if you take out a licence in your own name for your contact address then that will cover you on the boat, which seems logical. The main thing is that you have a licence in your name, which will cover you (and your family members) use on the boat.

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The main thing is that you have a licence in your name, which will cover you (and your family members) use on the boat.

 

Well that drives a coach and horses through the rules doesn't it?

 

Swapping it around, if the OP's parents, or children have a TV license, the OP can rely on that!

 

 

MtB

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I may have told this story before:

 

When I first moved to Bath in 2005, I decided not to but a TV, I was short of money, and the cost of a TV plus the cost of the licence seemed pointless. Nevertheless I got the usual "we note you have no TV licence". I politely responded I didn't have a TV either.

 

This escalated until I got a letter seeking to interview me under police caution for licence evasion. I went ballistic: a ballistic Magpie does not go in with fists flying, the weapon of choice is carefully selected facts with well crafted words, words that pointed out the number of homes with no TV as a percentage of homes with no TV licence (around 50% then) and the number of prosecutions that had failed, which was over 10%.

 

I got a letter of profuse apology and a promise I'd be left alone for at least two years, but they also denied that they simply went after people with no licence (Ha! really? So what was their problem with me?)

 

At about the same time a colleague went through a similar process, he found his threatening letter taped to the front door of his house: taped because the letter box had been sealed as the house had been gutted by fire six months earlier and the insurance was still being processed, the family were in rented accommodation ten miles away. His letter to them was even more stinking than mine!

 

Finally, I had to get a licence for my first wife as she had a small TV at work, to watch when she was hanging around to give the evening lectures which started at 8pm. Even back then, the 1990's this was problematic, as her office address didn't exist in the licence database. In the end the woman behind the counter just filled out by hand "Julia Edwards, office E107, Reynaults Building...". Apparently the TVLA wouldn't be able to process the licence but, if challenged, Julia was in the clear.

 

The letters to me are getting more and more threatening in tone - I even had one that said they had visited but no-one was there. I'm just waiting for the summons and will enjoy my day in court..... but as I am addressed as "the legal resident" I wonder if I can be summonsed under that name or do they have to put it in my name?

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Well that drives a coach and horses through the rules doesn't it?

 

Swapping it around, if the OP's parents, or children have a TV license, the OP can rely on that!

 

 

MtB

If you lived with your parent, and your parent had a boat, I would think they you would be covered whilst on their boat. If the boat were yours then I would say that you need to have your own TV license to cover use on the boat. Similarly if you did not live with your parent you need your own licence. But if course no where does it actually lay that out, so you would need to talk to them to be certain in those edge cases.

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To be fair, it's not exactly easy to pay a TV licence if you don't have an address. If you could simply post them a cheque once a year and they issued a licence to "Narrowboat Whatever", then I suspect that more would pay. But having to actively pursue them to pay them money at they're entitled to, doesn't exactly make the prospect of paying an exciting one. If I wanted a TV, I have much better things to do with my time than sending them innumerable emails and spending a lot of time on the phone trying to pay.

Assuming you receive post then do what we did. Have the licence at your postal address. Then you are permitted to use a TV in a boat or caravan. Not complicated simple.
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I'm not sure that buying a license to cover TV reception at your C/O address would count should push come to shove, as the C/O is not where you live.

 

 

I have in the past posted an email that I received from TVLA stating quite clearly that you are covered if you use your c/o address.

 

I don't see where the "difficulty" is these days as you can do it all online, using a c/o address, pay by direct debit or card and receive the licence via email in PDF form.

 

If anybody has difficulty reading PDFs then they can download the Adobe reader for free.

Edited by carlt
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So is it the address that is licenced, or the person?

 

If it's the person that hold the license I see no problem with a C/O address., but they seem to write to addresses not people when fishing for unlicensed TV watching.

 

MtB

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So is it the address that is licenced, or the person?

 

If it's the person that hold the license I see no problem with a C/O address., but they seem to write to addresses not people when fishing for unlicensed TV watching.

 

MtB

If it was the address that was licensed then your licence wouldn't be valid in your car, caravan, boat or yurt would it?

 

I was assured that my licence was valid even though my address was "Nb Usk, c/o The Stophouse, etc."

 

They chase the address because it is easier than tracing the person but, if a prosecution occurs, who gets done, the house or the householder?

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I like the flow of arguments on this post all of this I believe will change soon when the BBC lose their legal position of licence avoidance and it becomes a civil matter (or so I believe).

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I like the flow of arguments on this post all of this I believe will change soon when the BBC lose their legal position of licence avoidance and it becomes a civil matter (or so I believe).

There is indeed such a proposal being put forward by Ministers but fines will still apply for licence avoidance.

 

However you will not acquire a criminal record which you can do currently for licence avoidance, the proposals seem sensible and proportionate to me.

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/10684639/Dodging-TV-licence-will-not-be-a-crime.html

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So is it the address that is licenced, or the person?

 

If it's the person that hold the license I see no problem with a C/O address., but they seem to write to addresses not people when fishing for unlicensed TV watching.

 

MtB

It is a combination, use the lodger example on the TV licence web site. Just because they are at the same address as the house holder does not mean that they are covered. Similarly just because someone at your address has a licence does not mean that you are covered on your boat.

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In reality there's no such thing as a TV licence in as much as it doesn't licence the TV set. The licence is to cover the address property that the tv signal is received at and allows such equipment to be used at that address.

 

I question that choosing just any address to obtain a "TV licence" could in some circumstances be Illegal as you are declaring false information if you suggest there's receiving equipment at an address where actually there isn't. So IMO choosing an address with no such equipment actually there could be deemed as falsifying information to obtain a licence. When I brought this up with TV licencing they simply couldn't answer this question even from a supervisor. In addition they admitted that if I couldn't produce an address they couldn't licence my use of a TV.

 

At the end of the day a licence can't be issued without an address. And if that address doesn't have receiving equipment then are you actually covered to watch TV elsewhere?

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If you use the address of a friend or relation then they won't need their own licence. So the BBC are no worse off if you just don't bother at all.

 

How ever if you don't actually live there you do need one, so it does beg the question of if they allow one address to have more than one licence if it is not an address subdivided into multiple residences.....

 

I guess they must do, as it means more income to them and people do it as a tenant/lodger

 

Plus

 

http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/check-if-you-need-one/for-your-home/tenants-and-lodgers-aud2

Edited by The Dog House
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The TV licence for you house covers use on you boat with no complications at all, from TV licencing's second home section

 

 

You don’t need a separate TV Licence for

Any device powered solely by its own internal batteries (i.e. it is not connected to an aerial or plugged into the mains). Your main home’s TV Licence will cover this.

Boats, touring caravans or vehicles as they’re already covered by your main home’s TV Licence.

Static caravans, mobile homes or moveable chalets. Your main home’s TV Licence will cover you provided you don’t watch TV in both homes at the same time. In this case you would need to complete a declaration form .

 

 

But how many TVs on boats are powered solely by their own internal batteries? Surely this concession is only meant to apply to truly portable TV sets (and would presumably apply these days to a laptop with a TV card).

 

If you have a main home and a boat, then you are covered by the main home TV licence when on the boat, but if the boat is your main home then by my reading of this you can only watch a portable TV powered solely by its own internal batteries without needing a licence.

 

If your boat TV is powered by the main boat batteries then you need a licence. And if at the same time your boat is plugged into a shore line, then you are surely no different to anybody else watching a TV plugged into the mains.

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But how many TVs on boats are powered solely by their own internal batteries? Surely this concession is only meant to apply to truly portable TV sets (and would presumably apply these days to a laptop with a TV card).

 

If you have a main home and a boat, then you are covered by the main home TV licence when on the boat, but if the boat is your main home then by my reading of this you can only watch a portable TV powered solely by its own internal batteries without needing a licence.

 

If your boat TV is powered by the main boat batteries then you need a licence. And if at the same time your boat is plugged into a shore line, then you are surely no different to anybody else watching a TV plugged into the mains.

they don't have to be powered by their own batteries on a boat, it does not say that, thats are the list of cases where you do not needa separate TV licence, powered by own batteries is one, on a boat is another.

 

Your main home covers you on your boat, you don't need to get a separate licence for the boat. If your boat is you main home then you need still to have a TV licence, and the only way you can really do that is to get one using you correspondence address, when the in the same way as the preceding will cover you on your boat.

 

So you are correct you need a TV licence, not really sure anyone is disputing that at all, just that because the perceived chance of getting caught is low some are using that as a justification for ignoring the law because they don't like it.

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The detectors are now hand held, so they don't need a van!

 

I hope you get caught as because of you my licence costs me more than it should.

 

That's funny!

 

TV detector vans/hand held scanners were and still are a complete scam. They never worked, they were a brilliant idea to scare people into thinking that they could be detected watching TV.

 

My uncle used to drive one, it was full of impressive looking boxes with flashing lights and meters but they did nothing. All they had was a list of the addresses that didn't have a licence and they used to drive around those areas and hang about outside the unlicenced addresses for while to scare people into paying.

 

Do you really think that they would reduce your licence fee if all the non payers paid up??

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