Claim against faulty building works

[Spocksmum]

I am about to send a letter to a building company who did faulty works, along with evidence from another specialist firm who assessed and repaired the issue.

I was unable to get any response from the original builders when works urgently needed to be rectified and so could not give them an opportunity to come back and make good themselves. In any case, I think they'd have done another botched job.

However, I'm worried about an issue. The original builders did not charge me VAT as they were a new company just starting out and hadn't yet earned enough to pay VAT. However, part way through the works, they crossed that VAT boundary and so back dated their invoices to keep my costs down and to save them the hassle too.

Can they now counter my claim against them, for faulty works, by requesting I now pay VAT on the building works, which will come to more than I'm claiming from them?

If they quoted you a price and didn't say vat would be added you're entitled to pay as if it's vat inclusive.

Many thanks Collaborate. So does this mean that I won't get 'comeback' from the builders?

I'm really nervous about writing to them and maybe having no response or them getting aggressive - and also if it goes to court, having to pay legal costs. I'm not sure how expensive this would be?

They cannot now make you pay VAT. If they want to counterclaim they will have to come up with some other grounds for doing so.

If it goes to court and your claim is less than £10,000 it will be dealt with as a small claim. That means you will not be liable for the builder's legal costs even if you lose. You won't need a solicitor so court fees should be your only costs. If you win you can reclaim the court fees from the builder. The court fees depend on the size of the claim. The initial fee for a claim of up to £300 lodged online is £25.