Advice on Builder dispute

Hilary5565

We contracted a builder on receipt of a quote to build single storey extension, a porch, replace bathrooms, rewire and replumb existing house and a few other bits. The quote came in at 32,440.00 total price and the builder advised 3-4 months work and started in December 2013; this builder came recommended and was on trusted trader. Over the course of the build he did encounter a few extras and we have agreed to these; we met with him in April and the work was nowhere near completion and he told us another 4 weeks and he would be done. Two weeks ago when the work should have been completed he advised another 3-4 weeks work to finish everything but the porch, he would need to leave that and come back at a later date. In April he gave us a bill for 10K plus vat for additional work, we asked him to itemise this as some of the charges were already covered in the original quote. Also on this invoice he had added 6488 vat to cover the quote price as he had become vat registered in April; we have disputed this as he never mentioned VAT and certainly made no reference on his quote. To date we have paid him 30K and now he is demanding another 10K immediately to finish the work or he will walk off the job, take back material we have bought as he claims they are his property and charge us a fee for every day we delay paying this 10K. We are somewhat at a loss as the build started all friendly, they were very keen and suggested things we had overlooked, now they are hostile and very threatening; can anyone give me some advice of what i should do next??

Doozergirl

The invoice date of your original quote should be before the date he became VAT registered. He should not charge VAT on that. (He also had to pay the VAT on materials and pass on the cost in that original quote so if he genuinely had to charge VAT it should only be extra VAT on the labour portion). He certainly cannot just add VAT on an invoice that has already been paid.

Has he broken down the price on the extras now? If this invoice is later than his registration date, then he has to charge VAT by law.

If someone has to VAT register, it means that their turnover increases above a level of £80k or so. If you consider that this guy has only just registered, it suggests that he isn't used to this level of turnover and from his quote, I'm not certain he's turned a profit. If he has no cash or credit to finish your project, no amount of arguing or withholding payment is going to help.

How far are we from finishing, exactly? Is there a porch at all?

Can you tell me what the extras are that you know of? If he hasn't broken them down in a list then you may have to put a value on them and pay that towards getting the job finished until you can settle on a final balance.

Is he a member of the Federation of Master Builders?