Would you challenge this?

[rodham]

In the process of having wills drawn up by a local legal firm. On my initial phone call with them I asked how much it would be, and was given a price. No mention of VAT.

Have now received the invoice and it transpires the price I was quoted was exclusive of VAT. Am I right in thinking that as a private customer, rather than a business, they should have quoted me inclusive of VAT / said it was exclusive of?

Private individuals pay vat if buying relevant goods or services from a vat registered company . It would have been good if they had given the quote including vat or said the price was ex vat but they don’t have a choice of whether to charge vat

I think for clarity they should give you the final figure of the amount of money you will have to pay.

And if it's not that figure, they should say what other elements may be added.

Slipshod at best, deliberately misleading might be a shade too strong

Prices for consumers are deemed to be inclusive of VAT unless stated otherwise, that’s why lawyers say it automatically! You can push back and they should reduce the price, or they won’t refer to their regulatory authority (not sure who that is if they are not a law firm).

Thanks. I emailed them and their reply is that they can't remove the VAT, they say I was told on the initial phone call that prices were excluding VAT (they definitely didn't) and this would also have been relayed during our appointment. DH agrees that costs were never even discussed during our appointment, it was just getting the details for the wills. They haven't drawn them up yet so think we will go elsewhere out of principle.

You will pay VAT elsewhere too. What’s the point in changing firms now? Sounds a bit childish to me. They will charge you for work done to date and the meeting plus VAT! Why even argue about this? It’s not that much money. It will cost you even more to stick to somewhat misguided principles about a quote.

I don't think it's misguided principles to say you expect the quote to match the invoice.

I haven't got a problem with paying VAT, I've got a problem with it suddenly being £60 more expensive than I was quoted. That might not seem like a lot of money to some, but we hadn't budgeted for it and honestly if we'd known it was going to be that much we would have looked at cheaper options.

The quote was ex vat. It will cost you more than £60 to start again. So why bother. Just remind them that their quote was not accurate. For legal costs £60 is not much extra for getting an accurate and watertight will. Are cheaper options as good? You could have bought DIY I guess.