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Posted: **Sat Nov 24, 2012 7:10 pm**

Hi,

As my title says i owe the council a bit of money and the local housing
assocition a bit of money for rent.. will this affect my application at all?

Thanks for any answers in advance..

Posted: **Sat Nov 24, 2012 8:18 pm**

herewego wrote:Hi,

As my title says i owe the council a bit of money and the local housing
assocition a bit of money for rent.. will this affect my application at all?

Thanks for any answers in advance..

Your post is too vague.

When you say that you owe them "a little bit of money", is it:

You are in arrears and have arranged a repayment agreement which you are keeping to?
Have defaulted on a repayment agreement and have received reminders or summons?
Your acct has been passed to the bailiffs or debt collection agency?
Other legal action taken against you to recoup unpaid rent?

What is your current situation?

Posted: **Sun Nov 25, 2012 12:45 am**

herewego wrote:Hi,

As my title says i owe the council a bit of money and the local housing
assocition a bit of money for rent.. will this affect my application at all?

Thanks for any answers in advance..

Don't worry mate , it won't affect your application as its not a criminal conviction .

Posted: **Sun Nov 25, 2012 11:28 am**

Thanks for the answers.. Well am in arrears with the housing and have told my housing officer i will update it when i receive my student loan which is going to be backdated and she was fine with. The council tax situation is a bit different i got a letter like 2 weeks ago saying i owe them around £500 for the period 01-apr-12 to 31-mar-2013 and to pay in 2 installments starting next months but am pretty sure i can arrange a different payment plan with them. I actually dont really understand how council tax works cause i think i actually owe them money from last year but not heard anything about it so am a bit confused about that aswell ill prob have to phone them up and see what the deal is.
Oh yea talking about debt collection agency i owed sky money and they passed me on to one of them, but i have started a payment plan with them. Will the debt agency thing affect my application at all?
My current situation is am on ILR i've been on it for like 6 years.

Thanks for the advice everyone.

Posted: **Sun Nov 25, 2012 6:59 pm**

I think you'll be fine in terms of naturalising but no one can be certain.

Posted: **Tue Nov 27, 2012 2:15 pm**

herewego wrote:Thanks for the answers.. Well am in arrears with the housing and have told my housing officer i will update it when i receive my student loan which is going to be backdated and she was fine with. The council tax situation is a bit different i got a letter like 2 weeks ago saying i owe them around £500 for the period 01-apr-12 to 31-mar-2013 and to pay in 2 installments starting next months but am pretty sure i can arrange a different payment plan with them. I actually dont really understand how council tax works cause i think i actually owe them money from last year but not heard anything about it so am a bit confused about that aswell ill prob have to phone them up and see what the deal is.
Oh yea talking about debt collection agency i owed sky money and they passed me on to one of them, but i have started a payment plan with them. Will the debt agency thing affect my application at all?
My current situation is am on ILR i've been on it for like 6 years.

Thanks for the advice everyone.

IMHO, this has absolutely nothing to do with your naturalization. While it's nice to keep your house in order financially, it however does not mean you are not of good character (which you will have to satisfy) just because you owe money and behind in your repayment.

Kind regards

Posted: **Wed Nov 28, 2012 6:42 pm**

herewego wrote:Just received a letter today saying.

i committed an offense, the offense being installing a television receiver without a license .

it says there is enough information to prosecute me in a criminal court. However, they have decided to give me the opportunity to pay a fiscal fine under section 302 of the criminal procedure act(Scotland) 1995.

and if i accept the offer of paying the fine they will not prosecute me for the offense..

if i accept the offer it shall not be a conviction and shall not be recorded as one. but will be recorded on the Scottish criminal history system and will remain there for 2 years..

will this affect my naturalization which i plan on applying for next month..

am actually so angry cause i kept on ignoring the TV license letters and this happens.. arrrggg

Posted: **Wed Nov 28, 2012 8:01 pm**

Council Tax - payment of council tax is a legal requirement ( and something that is mentioned in the caseworkers guidance notes ).

TV License - you are liable for a fine of up to £1000 pounds if your matter goes to court. You will get a criminal record if convicted. If you have let a TV license inspector into your unlicensed premises and he has witnessed a working TV, he has enough evidence to convict you.

Living in the UK requires that you abide by UK laws.

Posted: **Wed Nov 28, 2012 8:19 pm**

Their letters are deliberately intimating and misleading. Receiving a letter from TV Licencing aka Capita aka BBC will mean squat and will have no influence on your naturalisation whatsoever. See here for a nice selection of similar letters. That guy is receiving these threatening and deceptive letters announcing his imminent prosecution since 2006 and is publishing them on the internet ever since. It also uncovers some fradulent tactics (like bogus signatures). A good read, helping to put things into perspective.

Also, there is NO LEGAL REQUIREMENT to let someone from TV Licensing / Capita into your flat (or anyone else, for that matter) without a warrant. No chance - don't let them in regardless how intimidating and threatening they are, they have no legal basis. More often than not their visits are pure harassment. If you have no TV, you are not even required to inform them of that fact. You are only required by law to inform them if you have a TV. See also the Q&A section on that website I listed above, it covers all the basics. Also very helpful: 13 things to know about the TV licence.

I used to play ball with them and cooperated, introducing them into my flat and proving that I am indeed one of those uncivilised savages who live without a telly. However, their tactics became increasingly aggressive and deceptive, so I decided to stop cooperating, as I am under no obligation to do so. Since then I am just receiving threatening letters, which go directly into the bin.

Posted: **Thu Nov 29, 2012 5:19 pm**

You are right with some of your assertions Gyfrinachgar. Particularily, there is no obligation to let a TV license inspector into your home.

And a great number of British people have great pleasure by dodging these officals.

However, the OP can correct me if I'm wrong, but it appears he has let one inside of his home.

As trivial as it may seem, being "caught watching TV without a license" is to this day a crminial offence.

Posted: **Thu Nov 29, 2012 5:33 pm**

mlove wrote:However, the OP can correct me if I'm wrong, but it appears he has let one inside of his home. As trivial as it may seem, being "caught watching TV without a license" is to this day a crminial offence.

True. Assuming that the OP has let those cutthroat brigands into his home (a mistake whether you have a TV or not) and they found unlicenced TV equipment there (even worse), he will have pending prosecutions now, and possibly an unspent criminal conviction later. Both statuses would badly affect naturalisation applications, effectively killing them. I am not familiar with the Scottish law they are referring to, but I would check very carefully: Firstly, do they indeed have sufficient evidence to prosecute (in other words: did the OP illegally use unlicenced equipment and got caught)? Secondly, is the payment of the fiscal fine a confession of guilt which could open the door to further proceedings, or does it guarantee amnesty from further prosecution?

Posted: **Fri Nov 30, 2012 12:17 am**

Gyfrinachgar wrote:
mlove wrote:However, the OP can correct me if I'm wrong, but it appears he has let one inside of his home. As trivial as it may seem, being "caught watching TV without a license" is to this day a crminial offence.
True. Assuming that the OP has let those cutthroat brigands into his home (a mistake whether you have a TV or not) and they found unlicenced TV equipment there (even worse), he will have pending prosecutions now, and possibly an unspent criminal conviction later. Both statuses would badly affect naturalisation applications, effectively killing them. I am not familiar with the Scottish law they are referring to, but I would check very carefully: Firstly, do they indeed have sufficient evidence to prosecute (in other words: did the OP illegally use unlicenced equipment and got caught)? Secondly, is the payment of the fiscal fine a confession of guilt which could open the door to further proceedings, or does it guarantee amnesty from further prosecution?

Hahaha...lol , "letting those cutthroat brigands in"

Posted: **Fri Nov 30, 2012 1:15 pm**

Thanks for the replies guys.
Yea i actually let the guys in, i know i shouldn't have really..
Basically the letter is saying if i pay the fiscal fine amount of £75 i will not be prosecuted and if i accept the offer(fine) it will not be a conviction and will not be recorded as one..
So will this affect my naturalization at all?
Thanks

Posted: **Fri Nov 30, 2012 1:27 pm**

herewego wrote:Yea i actually let the guys in, i know i shouldn't have really.. (...) So will this affect my naturalization at all?

I do not know for sure, but under these circumstances your best bet is to play along. Pay the fiscal fine and get a TV licence asap. If you are lucky, that is all. If nothing else happens afterwards, you got off with a slap on the wrist for breaking the law - if so, count your blessings. Even so, you probably have to put that incident into section 3.12 of form AN, but the important thing is that you don't need to file it under section 3.6 (which would have been a show-stopper).

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