UK Question; If a five bedroomed house (with 5 tenants) receives a fine for not having aTV licence, how is it decided WHO pays the fine?

5 unrelated tenants? So it is HMO registered, so each have to have a separate licence as they are not a 'family'. it is the resident/s who pay as they are the ones which live there and watch TV/have the TV in the property, so unless the property is empty of tenants yet still has a TV in it the landlord is not liable.
Ultimately if the landlords property is unlicensed and the landlord provides a TV, both landlord and tenants can be held responsible and either/both could face prosecution and a fine of up to £1,000

Who owns the TV? If it is one of the tenants, then they will be liable for the fine. If it is the landlord, then they will be responsible for the fine.
https://www.propertyhawk.co.uk/magazines/landlords-and-television-licences/

Tell them you only watch iplayer and recorded programmes. You don't need a TV licence to do this.

Who's name is on the summons?

Who has their name listed on the summons??

All 5 tenants owe the fine. Since there are 5 separate living units in the house, each unit must have its own TV license.

s

Tv license? The hell is that? I thought we had it bad

The owner of the property for allowing it to occur.

I AGREE

you are years behind the times as regards tv licensing

the licensing laws have changes a lot over the last few years to take into account the way people live today and the capability of modern electronic devices


If the 5 tenants are on the same lease then only 1 license is required and they are collectively responsible for paying it

If the 5 have separate leases (each has their own identifiable room and key to that room) then each requires their own license

in neither case is the landlord required to pay it

(I would advise the landlord to buy the license (either just 1 for the house - or 1 for each rented room as necessary) and add the cost into the rent then the problem will never arise ( the license is for the rented space- not for who lives in it)

(if all 5 are on the same lease then they dont have to identify who is watching cos all 5 will be put on the summons as they are collectively responsible for having a license - Its up to them to determine who pays what %age of the license or fine

Note - with modern technology it aint difficult to determine which room was being used (in fact the tv dont need to be used at all - the fact that you have one requires a license - THATS why if you buy a tv you are required to give your address before you can buy it (Dont know what happens if the address dont have a license - Maybe if it dont they wont allow you to buy it until you get one for that address - Only takes a few seconds to check that address - so who knows)

But more importantly - the license aint required just for a tv- its required for ANY equipment CAPABLE of receiving broadcasted tv whether you watch tv on it or not, and THAT includes smart phones, tablets and computers
You dont have a tv and only watch films on demand on a computer?- you still need a tv license

Thing is- you only need 1 license for each lease no matter how many people are on the lease, how many devices they have or where they use them is not relevant
So 5 people on the same lease only require 1 license and they can watch tv on any device they own wherever they want

The "tv license" is now a catch all license for virtually any video reception on an electronic device - so it dont make sense for anybody not to have one

Last thing
Its assumed every property has some form of "tv" device - so its assumed all properties will have a license
Since licensing is computerised its very easy to spot any property that DONT have a license and target them for investigation
AND the licensing authorities have the right to demand entry to inspect for those devices (i.e THEY dont have to prove you have a device - in the modern age the fact that the property dont have a license is all they need)

you do