To not pay the VAT?

[BertramKibbler]

I had some work done on my house. The quote was sent through via email. It was just a few lines specifying the work required and then said price: £X

I’ve just paid the bill and had a message saying they haven’t received the full amount, that the quote was for £X + VAT.

There was no mention of the VAT on the quote or on any discussions we had about the price.

As an aside, we had a few disagreements during the work because I refused to take him up on the offer of additional jobs he decided needed doing.

Is his vat registration on the quote anywhere. Most people who are vat registered have this somewhere and if they do don’t need to necessarily write +vat on their quote.

I would be inclined to say that you thought his quote was inclusive of everything and refuse to pay more. Assuming the original email is clear. It is then up to him to try and recover. It may be that he became VAT registered recently.

Did the bill have VAT added? You can't me a mind-reader can you?

But in short, no you don’t have to pay it if it wasn’t in the quote and it doesn’t state anywhere he was vat registered. He can’t just add it in after it is his mistake.

Maybe suggest to him you are going to call hmrc to confirm his vat status an request his number....

Did he sent you any terms with the quote or was it literally just that line?

If silent on VAT, a quote is legally understood to include it (if applicable).

Was it a quote or estimate?

If it was a quote then VAT is inclusive unless he indicated he was VAT registered.

If it was an estimate you need to pay the VAT.

He is VAT registered, his number is on the very bottom of his website. I just found it after searching

Nothing about it whatsoever on my quote though. The quote was literally a couple of lines and there was no headed paper, email signature etc mentioning anything about VAT.

You don't need to pay the VAT. If the quote does not mention VAT (either as a "+VAT" or specific figure), it is deemed to be inclusive of VAT.

It is his responsibility to split what you paid him into his share and the VAT e.g. if you paid £120, he has to pay £20 of that to HMRC (I bet he won't...)

How much is it?

The relevant consumer protection regulation states: All price indications you give to consumers, by whatever means, should include VAT.

Legally you can win this. Practically, starting a fight with a manual labourer type might cause more trouble than it's worth if it was only a small bill.

The VAT adds around £1k to the overall price.

If it was £20 I’d probably pay for an easy life.

Just email him back, attaching his quote and confirm that as he can say the price was listed as X with no mention of additional costs. It's his cock up, and this is the whole point of getting these things in writing. it's up to him to pay his VAT, he's just trying his luck.

That’s basically what I’ve done Betty. Just wanted some other opinions before I did it.