Our licence should be free – so why the threats?

R.S. writes: We bought two semi-detached bungalows and converted them into one home. They were numbered 73 and 75 in the road and we chose to use 75, so 73 no longer exists. But we keep receiving threatening letters from TV Licensing about 73. We have had two visits from inspectors and both said they would correct their records, but the threatening letters still arrive. What makes it more galling is that I am 82 and my wife is 76 so we have a free TV licence. YOU have explained repeatedly to TV Licensing that you have just one house. Even if you put 75 in your name and 73 in your wife’s name, you would both still get the over-75s free licence, so all this investigation by the authorities is pointless.

Yet the threats have kept coming. Just after you contacted me you received another letter, saying: ‘Official warning: we have opened an investigation.’ And if you fail to reply, ‘our enforcement division will schedule a visit’. Absurdly though, your free TV licence was addressed to you at 73-75, so someone at TV Licensing has accepted that your house covers both numbers.

Officials told me: ‘We are very sorry for any concern or inconvenience caused by this database error and we are writing to Mr S to apologise. We can assure Mr S that we have now linked the two addresses and our records correctly reflect that he has a free licence.’ But they added that the Post Office still lists the two numbers separately, so it might be worth looking into this.