Been Charged 20% instead of 5% for years

Jboy24

Okay I posted this a while ago and Im getting progress made. #Big energy firm# have been charging my parents house by mistake for years at 20% VAT plus adding the CCL charge. Its running up into the many thousands of pounds difference. Thing is they had previously charged this property domestically and we haven't changed it(owned since the 1960s).

Now the ombudsman has come back with a weird response and I want to see what people think.

They have said that they agree with #Big energy firm# that we are responsible for the VAT levels payable on my account. WHAT ?????

So when I go to the petrol station or in fact any shop I should be checking that they have correctly invoice me the VAT.

Cardew

They are probably 'technically' correct, but very clearly morally wrong! Their defence is doubtless that they don't know if the property was used for commercial purposes in the past.

Have your parents been with the same energy company for the whole time period the incorrect VAT was levied?

I would firstly try the local VAT inspector and seek his advice on reclaiming the VAT - probably limited by statute to six years.

Then try local MP or Watchdog type programme. If, as I suspect, the big energy company are legally correct; it will rule out action in the Small Claims Court

Cardew

Having read this thread, the situation is not as straightforward as stated in your opening post.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5502873

D_M_E

They have said that they agree with #Big energy firm# that we are responsible for the VAT levels payable on my account. WHAT ?????

Did the Ombudsman actually use the words "VAT levels" and not make any reference to 5% 0or 20%?

If so then you have grounds for complaint as they obviously did not read or correctly consider the original complaint.

cranford

When VAT was introduced in July 1990 there was a lot of publicity and mail shots by the energy companies and if a domestic customer started to pay VAT by mistake then I am afraid that the onus to rectify this was down to the customer. Likewise any business users that were not paying VAT should have declared this. At the time there were a few business that tried to claim they were charities and those that declared a rather high percentage of domestic use.
Again there was a lot of publicity in July 1994 when domestic VAT was introduced.
So the best you can do is to admit to not checking you were paying VAT at the business rate and try and prove that you were a domestic customer for at least the last six years.
If you think you can claim for longer remember that you will need to check the relative VAT rates which have not always been 20% and 5%.