TV Licence

S

Sile

Guest
What happens when inspector calls if you have no tv licence.
(A) Are you fined
(B) Given a chance to get a licence, and they will call back to check it.
 
See .

According to :

Conviction for non-payment of a television licence (first offence) is a fine of 634 euro.

If you are convicted a second time for not paying your television licence, you will be fined 1,269 euro and your television and signal equipment will be confiscated.

My understanding is that the first time offence fine is automatic and mandatory (assuming that there are no mitigating factors) and anybody caught with no license should expect to receive the fine in the post soon after. Obviously a TV license is still also required regardless of whether or not the fine is levied.
 
TV

just to say that when i was in college and living with a load of lads (about three years ago) the TV license man called, threatened and said he would call back within X days and we better have one. He called back about five times over a few months and needless to say we didnt get a licence. He then issued a summons to a made up name we gave him and the whole thing went on for about a year by which time we had moved out.
I wouldnt bother too much about a licence. If i had a choice i wouldnt want RTE1 and 2 and TV£ or whatever. Isnt it wrong that you have to pay for these even if you dont want them, and also have to pay for cable/sattelite(which is fair enough)
 
Re: TV

I wouldnt bother too much about a licence.

Please note that AAM does not condone or facilitate law breaking. I think a more prudent, not to mention legally compliant, approach would be to simply buy the license and avoid the threat of fairly hefty fines - after which one will still need to buy a license anyway! Where somebody disagrees with the law on a point of principal then they might be better off trying to lobby their elected representatives for a change in the relevant legislation.
 
Re: TV

Or get rid of your TV. :)

Interesting to hear that they now want companies to pay the licence fee even if the TV is not used to receive a TV signal.
i.e. TV and video used for showing in-house Video's etc.

A bit much I think.

As a matter of interest, if the TV guy shows up on your step and you don't have a TV. Are you obliged to let him into your house to check?

-Rd
 
Re: TV

daltonr - it has always been the case that a license is payable if you have a receiving device. Whether or not you use it to receive anything is up to you.

z
 
Daltonr

No you are not obliged to let him in to your house to check and neither are you obliged to give your name.
 
..

you are not obliged to let him in to your house to check and neither are you obliged to give your name.
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With attitudes like that, no wonder it is estimated that up to 20% of households in Ireland are TV licence evaders.
 
Re: ..

you are not obliged to let him in to your house to check and neither are you obliged to give your name.
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Correct - But they will usually return with a court order & the Gardai within a week or two, in which case you are obliged to let them in, give your name & pay the €600 fine when it goes to court.
 
Re: ..

But they will usually return with a court order & the Gardai within a week or two, in which case you are obliged to let them in,
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By which time you're TV is in the Shed, the Attic, or Next Door.

It's a ridiculous system which is out of date. If financing a Public Sector Broadcaster is an important thing then pay for it out of Tax receipts, raising Tax if necessary.

Fire all the inspectors, and stop wasting the Guards and the Courts time pursuing people. Stop wasting money administering an indirect tax. The same could be said about Car Tax. Stop administering that system, and wasting Guards and Courts time enforcing it, and just bump up the tax on Petrol/Diesel.

Of course the truth is they already are bumping up these other taxes, they just want to keep the other kinds as well.

And there is NO justification in any case for making companies pay this fee for TV's that are used for presentation purposes and which can not receive RTE's broadcasts.

-Rd
 
Re: ..

But don't forget that An Post also have those "detector vans". Besides detecting your wireless telegraphy receiving equipment they can magically distinguish between the TV in your neighbour's house and the computer monitor in your home office.
:rupert
 
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By which time you're TV is in the Shed, the Attic, or Next Door.
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This sounds just a little bit unrealistic, rd. Are you really going to keep your TV in the shed/attic/neighbour from the time the inspector has called indefinitely? Do you really the Gardai have never considered the idea of searching the shed or the attic? Do you think that they just might get a 2nd court order and come back a week later?

You ain't gonna beat the system.
 
Re: ..

I agree that the TV license should be scrapped and replaced with exchequer funding. If quality TV is for the common good of the nation then we should all pay for it and not just TV owners. Under the current system anyone who uses their TV to provide themselves with mindless entertainment( ie Sky One) is effectively subsidising the TV viewing of those with more "cultured tastes" What's so special about TV anyway? It's just another information/entertainment medium among others.
 
Re: ..

Rainyday,

When I lived alone I had no TV, and hopefully I'll get back to that situation soon. So I have no interest in beating the system.

But I do disagree with stupid systems, and I would suggest that if everyone refused entry to the inspector and forced him to return with a Court Order (as you are entitled to do) that WOULD defeat the system because it would collapse.

Personally I'd suggest getting rid of the TV. Well worth doing. Unfortunately if you are sharing a house with others it's nearly impossible to find people who agree.

Incidently for the few years that I lived without TV (or license) the inspector never called. If he had I'd have told him I had no TV (which would have been correct) and refused him entry to the house. (Just to see what would happen).

People (including me) have no problem paying for TV, but
additional taxes that need to be administered and policed have always seemed like a waste of resources to me. Not to mention being unfair to those who don't use the TV as a receiver.

Don't get me started on that Magic Van nonsense.

-Rd
 
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What's so special about TV anyway? It's just another information/entertainment medium among others.
Click to expand...

Hi Shanks - I can see where you are coming from. However, I can see the benefit of state fund TV programming. I'd hate to see all our news programming dumbing down, like the TV3 News (with Lorraine giggling inanely at celeb's and Martin badly faking a Dub accent). New Zealand dropped their TV licence a few years ago. I was speaking to a family member in NZ over the weekend who described their TV news as 'the Sun on TV' - Do we really want to go there?
 
Re: ..

and Martin badly faking a Dub accent

Actually, that is his real accent. Anyway, I won't hear a bad word said against a fellow Bohs supporter! Anybody notice if he wore his Bohs scarf and/or jersey last night as he did when we last won the league? It was funny the time he was on TV3 doing the weather while at the same time I could see him standing at the bar in Dalymount drinking pints. The power of technology, eh!? :lol
 
Licence mix-up?

I sent off a cheque for 150 euro a couple of months and got my licence back in the post.However a month later I got another letter asking if I wouldn't mind cancelling my last cheque and sending them another as due to an error in their office they were unable to process my payment.This looked like a form letter sent out to many licence holders but I have no idea what happened (did they accidentally shred a load of cheques?).Anyone else experience this?.
I was going to send them off another cheque until I got another letter (a very sniffy one!),repeating their "error" and pointing out that I had not paid for my licence and how they would appreciate a quick response.
 
Recieving equipment

Guys, you're required to have a TV licence if you have any signal receiving equipment in or attached to your home. This means that any house with a NTL cable box or an ariel sticking out of the chimney is required to be licensed, TV present or not. Insane I know, but that's the government for you.

The license is too expensive but I'm not entirely opposed to it, I'd hate to see TV go to the standard of , say, SKY. However channels like C4 seem to be doing okay on advertising revenue only and their have pretty good programs, plus they have the best news service on TV.
 
Re: Recieving equipment

And what if you don't have any signal receiving equipment.
Just the TV?

How about a PC with a TV Card, but no Arial, Cable, Satellite etc? I have an old TV Card for a PC out in the shed, it's never used, or even plugged into a PC. Should I get rid of it in case the inspector calls.

Also what's the story with multiple TV's? Do you or do you not need a license for each TV in the house?

Personally I think RTE could be dramatically Cut down, run at a much lower cost, One TV Channel, One Radio Channel, and be just as useful.

Prime Time and the News are Good. Q&A used to be ok. Occasional Documentaries like State of Fear are excellent. Radio 1 is good. And of course the odd Sporting Event. Apart from that the License fee serves no useful Public Broadcasting function.

It should be possible to fully fund a smaller RTE from the License with no Ads. Then I'd agree with it.

-Rd
 
Re: Recieving equipment

And what if you don't have any signal receiving equipment.
Just the TV?

The TV can receive a signal directly so you need a license.

How about a PC with a TV Card, but no Arial, Cable, Satellite etc? I have an old TV Card for a PC out in the shed, it's never used, or even plugged into a PC. Should I get rid of it in case the inspector calls.

I realise that you're probably being facetious while pointing out the potential flaws in the legislation but in this case you still technically need a license as far as I know.

Also what's the story with multiple TV's? Do you or do you not need a license for each TV in the house?

Once again, if people bothered to read the links that I and others post (e.g. the which I posted earlier) they would know that in this case only one license is required:

"If your household, business or institution possesses a television or equipment capable of receiving a television signal, you are required by law to have a television licence."

This discussion is going nowhere. At the very least it should be split into two parts (a) those posts dealing with specific queries and factual answers relating to licensing requirements/costs etc. and (b) those posts arguing over the perceived merits/demerits/rights/wrongs of the legislation as it stands.
 
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