VAT query - anyone else build their own house?

[jennymac]

We are in the middle of building and have hired a contractor to do the job. His quote is VAT zero but I am hoping we can claim back VAT on our kitchens, bathrooms, wooden floors, tiles etc. We had someone else do the footings for us and we also hoping to claim back the £500 spent on VAT for cement for that. A friend recently told me that because we have a contractor and he will be claiming VAT back on all the building materials, we won't be able to make a VAT claim for the other stuff, as they only allow one claim per property. Do anyone know if this is true?

[jeanjeannie]

Not too sure about this - you will need to check before you go spending out too much. I know if you've got a listed building then on certain jobs, you can claim VAT back - but you need a VAT registered builder so as to get the VAT reciept. Only know this as DH is VAT registered and is used to doing this. I can't see why, as the owner of the property you wouldn't be able to do the same on your own home if it's being built from scratch. But check - it's a lot of money and if you've got a non-vat registered builder and you need one that is - then you need to know now!

[oricella]

this is a good guide; basically you can only make one claim personally and you need to ensure that you do not pay any VAT to your builders. I think basically the builder should not charge you any VAT on the concrete as he will either not pay it, or has to claim it back himself. If the supply is part of the contract then you can not make a claim for it; but if you pay him only the labour and supply the concrete yourself then you can (but only at the end of the build, together with all the other bits)

[jennymac]

Thanks oricella. We paid for the concrete for the footings ourselves (and paid VAT on it) as we had a different guy doing that job. Basically our planning permission was running out and we needed to make a start but we hadn't awarded the main job yet.

[oricella]

then you should be able to claim it back together with all your other bits at the end; hope your build runs smoothly