Being threatened by contractor

mollieminall

Fencing contractor did some work but refused to give me an invoice until months later. I now have a bill that my accountant says I will not be able to use. Pure "Micky Mouse"

He is charging vat on materials but not on labour. He is not vat registered.
The address given is his girlfriends. Prices are incorrect. The total amount due is printed as £11276.00 when it should read £1276.80. Clearly a typo but he refuses to correct it.

I dispute the amount and am more than willing to take my chances in the Small Claims Court.

He has emailed to say I pay up in full or he will remove the fencing.

What if anything can I do please?

bengalknights

State you are going to report him to HMRC

CKhalvashi

Not a good one for a 'professional' person.

A threat of speaking to HMRC is going to knock him into gear, methinks.

CK

cavework

Is the 1278.80 the agreed amount for the work done? Do you have the original quotation for the work? are you VAT registered , if so you just claim it back through your business as usual
re the VAT element for materials only, is he CIS registered? Perhaps that is where the confusion originates..
If you have the quote and agree that price is correct , just an error on his invoice, make the payment and leave the rest up to him.

zenmaster

Is he demanding £11276.00 or £1276.80?

If not I fail to see where the small claims court comes into it.

He is quite entitled to pass the VAT charged on materials to you - do you think he should pay it for you?

As for reporting him to HMRC - what for? A typo on an invoice (in their favour)?

prowla

If he isn't VAT registered (or if he is, actually), he has to pass the VAT on purchases on to you.

In other words, if he has bought some wood for £100+VAT, then he will pass the bill for £120 on to you.

If he isn't VAT registered then he cannot charge you VAT on his services (ie. time & labour).

In other words, if he charges his time at £50/hr, then 2 hours costs you £100 flat (ie. not £100+VAT = £120).

BobQ

mollieminall wrote: »

Fencing contractor did some work but refused to give me an invoice until months later. I now have a bill that my accountant says I will not be able to use. Pure "Micky Mouse"

He is charging vat on materials but not on labour. He is not vat registered.
The address given is his girlfriends. Prices are incorrect. The total amount due is printed as £11276.00 when it should read £1276.80. Clearly a typo but he refuses to correct it.

I dispute the amount and am more than willing to take my chances in the Small Claims Court.

He has emailed to say I pay up in full or he will remove the fencing.

What if anything can I do please?

Reporting to HMRC makes no sense to me unless you think he did not pay VAT on the materials he used in the job.

So he was late giving you an invoice (free loan) and it had a typo. Do you know that his business address is not his girlfriend's home?

Was the work £1276 worth and consistent with his quotation? If so pay it and give it to your accountant. Or pop around and see him and ask him to manually change the typo and sign the change, and then hand him the cheque.

If the cost of the work is much more than estimated or agreed write to him saying so and offer him what you think it should be or invite him to sue for it. He will have to be really annoyed with you to remove the fence especially if he has concreted the posts in place!

mollieminall

The original estimate was £800. He has refused to re-write the invoice to correct the typo, if that's what it is. A lot of the materials were already on site.

The materials are all itemized and priced as 'inclusive'. Vat is then added at the end of the bill.

It took me months to get this bill so not my choice to delay and get a free loan. His girlfriend denies all knowledge of any business.

He has just sent me another email saying he has been advised by police to warn me of court action if I don't pay £1190 in cash at once. Says he is VAT registered but as I'm not I cannot be given his registration number.

Don't believe the police would advise on a civil matter and this new sum has appeared from nowhere. He is making this up as he goes along.

Annisele

mollieminall wrote: »

Says he is VAT registered but as I'm not I cannot be given his registration number.

That is just daft. According to HMRC:

Non-retail invoices from VAT-registered suppliers - for example from builders, or painters and decorators who are VAT registered - must show a separate amount for VAT. They must also show the nine-digit VAT Registration Number of the business.

I've got Tesco's VAT number on a receipt in my pocket - they're hardly a secret!

You seem to accept that you do owe him some money. So, I think you ought to work out the amount you do owe him, pay him that, explain why you've paid him that amount, and then do nothing else unless it gets to the point where you have to file a defence against court action.

mollieminall

Yes, I do owe him some money. The sad part of all this is that he does a brilliant job. His work is great and the fence is near perfect but it's as though he could not resist the temptation to grab himself some extra money.

I will send a cheque for the amount I believe I owe, that at least that should be a sign of my good intentions. I will not pay cash as he demands. I have always been too scared of the tax man to attempt any fiddling so even if I wanted to I am afraid petty cash doesn't run to anything approaching £1K.

Mistral001

If The OP wnet to a lawyer rather than an accountant for advice here they would probably tell the OP that, the contarctor does not have to give him/her an invoice.

This seems like a straight forward contractual arrangement where an offer for doing a certain job for a certain amount of money was made by this contractor and this offer was accpeted by the OP.

The contractor's tax arrangements (VAT or income tax etc.) are nothing to do with the OP and it has no affect on the contract here as far as I can see. However, I think the OP can insist on getting a receipt if they pay by cash.

Edit:
The contractor of course cannot charge VAt if he is not registered. But most contractors who are not registered still get their materials quoted to them nett of VAT by the building merchants and that is confusing to many of them as they see VAT as an additional cost to them whereas it is part of the cost to them if they are not VAT registered. They think that they are charging VAT whereas they are not. There have been several very confused handymen and small builders coming to MSE here in the past trying to work it all out with varying degrees of success.