“Julian, Theoretically you a right, but I'm sure that the Licensing People have probably been given lists of all "new build" houses and send a "To the Occupier" letter to them - they probably check up on any new build addresses that do not respond after a given time.”

“geoff, Torquay your on something right?

So if we all theoretically buy a brand new house that has not had a tv registered to it and buy a tv off a car boot or ebay and same with a set top box then we all could watch tv for free forever as they will never check..bleh bleh bleh”

“I dont have a license, never have, never will. Bleh!!!”

“I watch TV on my computer, iPlayer, and loads more from all over the world, do I need a TV licence?

I have a TV licence, not too sure if any of the rubbish on there is worth paying for.

What is this story really about is it a scare story issued by the TV Licensing people and issued to the press to fill spaces and increase revenue, it is strange that this story is on several different newspapers online in the same group as this paper.”

“P.S. If the BBC refrained from giving the likes of Jonathan Woss salaries approaching £6M a year, something like the value of 42,000 licence fees they would not be asking for £142/year!
Free TV for all!!!”

“No such thing as a TV detector, TVs receive, not transmit! TVs (you) are registered on a licence database when purchased, and the same goes when you buy a digital-box.

Previously if you had a TV you needed a licence, but now with digital I'm not sure that law applies? If the TV can not receive digital i.e. you don't have a digital-box and is only used to watch DVDs or videos (without the adverts!)
Is Warren Carr trying to say that if a person has a computer and not a TV the BBC wants you to buy a licence for it, I think the BBC would have a riot on their hands if they went down that path! Scrap the licence fee its just another stealth tax which is unfair, why should I pay the same as a highly paid MP when we both have very different incomes and unlike an MP I cannot get the fee back on expenses!
Free TV for all!!!!”

“It's quite simple to check. All they do is run a check against postcodes. If a property has a licence then no action. Otherwise as stated on here by others.”

“It can be annoying to receive these letters when you are not their customer! Once an inspector had been around to check that I was not watching television they were happy and put me down for a check in 3 years. I have recently had a letter from them to check up and threaten etc, they wanted me to return a form or ring them at my expense. I sent the form but forgot to put a stamp on it.”

“Im not sure where they get their information from to send out the red letters but dont think it is anything to do with previous license registration. When I was in the army, I used to recieve a monthly reminder to my accomodation block addressed to 'the broom cupboard', which was exactly that!”

“...And how do they know how many people are evading the license fee?
Simple. They look at all the addresses that have had a TV license registered to them in the past, and of those they isolate the ones that do not have a current license registered to them. So, if you have had enough of TV and decide to junk the telly in favour of the delights of Radio 4 then be prepared to receive a barrage of threatening letters (usually on a monthly basis), demanding that you sign and return a declaration form stating that you don't have a TV at your address. I had this once when I was gutting and renovating a property - even when I wrote to them explaining the situation they still ended up sending someone round to check. It really does border on harrassment - the letters threaten you with court action unless you sign and return a declaration form, and if you do then you can expect another threatening letter next month.

PS "Detector vans" are just a load of pseudo-scientific mumbo jumbo - they don't actually work, they just provide a physical presence.”