who is liable for the TV licence ?

Question

my friend lives in a house which is shared. There is a communal living room and kitchen, and there are four other private bedrooms which are for him and the other people. They are getting reminder notices for the tv licence. There is a tv in the communal sitting room which they all use. Would the tenants have to pay or would the landlord be liable ?

Answer 1

Do I need my own licence if I live in shared accommodation?


If you are going to be sharing a house, a separate tenancy agreement would normally mean your room is classified a separately occupied place. In this case, if you have a TV in your room, you will need your own TV Licence.

However, if there is only one TV in a communal area, then only one TV Licence is required. Similarly, if your house can be treated as one place shared by all, then only one TV Licence is required - a joint tenancy agreement would normally indicate that there is only one separately occupied place.

xxB

Answer 2

The owner of the television.

If the tenants are using the unlicensed television, they are complicit in its use, so they will each be guilty of an offence. They might do whoever was watching the telly when they knocked on the door.

If the landlord is liable but won't pay, if your friend does not want to get done the obvious answer is to buy a licence, preferably sharing the cost with the other residents.The TV people don't care who pays providing they get their money!

This is the sort of probelm that makes the TV Licence so unjust and unfair. It is high time this tax, which reflects a time when technology was quite different from now, was replaced by something less objectionable.

Answer 3

The party having the tv is liable for the tv license fee.

If the landlord does not have a tv, and the tenant does then it is tenant's responsibility and vice versa

However, if both landlord and tenant have seperate tv's then only one tv license fee is applicable and the cost for same is negotiable between landlord and tenant. More often than not, in these cases the landlord will obtain the license and negotiate a periodic charge with tenant

Answer 4

There may also be an issue depending on whether the private bedrooms are let as individual lots or whether there is a joint tenancy agreement between the four of them, if there is, then one TV license will cover the entire property, if not the Tv license will only cover the TV in the communal area. Have them check with the landlord as to which is true. A joint tenancy agreement is easy to sign, we had to do it a while back at my house.

In terms of who should pay, look at the contract that he signed when moving in, it should state there if the landlors is paying for the TV license, if not its up to your friend and his housemates to sort it out.

(A tip: if they won't be living there for a full twelve months, set up to pay the TV license by direct debit every 3 months and then cancel it when they move out, could save 25% of the cost compared to paying full whack up front. )

Answer 5

It depends on whether the TV was included in the rental or whether it belongs to those renting the house. If the landlord provided it as part of the lease then he/she is liable for it - if not then it's up to the tennants.

Answer 6

The tenants are responsible, they should all club together and pay for it, what on earth makes you think that your landlord would be liable, he doesn't live there..

Answer 7

The tenants - to be more precise, if you were detected, it would be the people watching at the time and that would be assumed as anyone who lived in the the house and was in at the time.

Answer 8

It's the tenants liability.It doesn't matter how many t.v's there are in the house.As it's a shared house,then the licence should be paid by all concerned.

Answer 9

The people living in the house are liable, it is their responsibility.

Answer 10

Tenants, they will have to split the bill between them.