Cleaning company backcharging VAT - am I obliged to pay?

Manchester2019

Hello,


I employed a cleaner, via a cleaning company at my home for 2 hours every two weeks to clean our kitchen and bathroom.
The cleaning company sent an invoice at the end of every month for the work done that month, which was paid.



The cleaner has decided not to continue with cleaning our house. The company have now sent us new invoices going back to October when they started work, asking for VAT on top of the original invoice amount. There was never any conversation around the hourly rate being plus VAT (I wouldn't have agreed to this as they were already quite costly compared to others). On the original invoices there is no VAT number, nor does it say price + VAT. On the latest invoice where they are trying to back-charge VAT, again there is also no VAT number, it just says "VAT has been applied for".


Am I under any obligation to pay this?


On a side note, the service we received was terrible. When they decided to stop coming, they just stopped turning up, they didn't inform us of their decision. I had to call and email repeatedly asking what had happened and why they weren't coming any more. When they finally got back to me (a month later) I was told that my house was "too messy" (!!! - it wasn't, it's a normal house). They then took another month to return our keys, which also took repeated phone calls. I know this shouldn't have any bearing on the legal implications but wanted to share the background.

davidmcn

If it's a consumer contract then I think you can presume that the price includes any VAT, so I can't see that you're liable.

DoaM

Legally a business must tell a consumer the final price (inc. VAT - they've no obligation [AFAIK] to separate the VAT element from the final price in a consumer contract), or how the final price is to be achieved (e.g. £xx per hour plus VAT at 20%). If their invoices do not specify a VAT element then what they've invoiced is what you pay - a consumer is required to receive an inclusive price therefore the consumer can rightfully presume that the invoice is inclusive.


You have no obligation to pay their spurious "missing VAT" invoice. Yes, they can chase you through the courts for it but I doubt they'd win - you have a legal defence.

CardinalWolsey

If they are saying that they have now applied to be VAT registered, then any invoice that they have issued prior to that point (i.e. their registration) do not attract VAT. Decline their new, speculative invoice.

Jumblebumble

CardinalWolsey wrote: »

If they are saying that they have now applied to be VAT registered, then any invoice that they have issued prior to that point (i.e. their registration) do not attract VAT. Decline their new, speculative invoice.

This is true but HMRC will back charge the business VAT from Date of Application until they have issued the certificate ( Why it has taken 3 months is suspicious and may well be that the Cleaning company have been forcibly been enrolled by HMRC and was backdated )

As they did not I would not engage further with them as advised by CardinalWolsey as they in my view stand zero chance of a court ordering you to pay.
The cleaning company's accountant should have known better as they will still have to pay the VAT
Of course if you still want to use them then this is a different story !

Standard procedure regarding invoices raised pending registration is to show the VAT- inclusive figure as a single figure. You should not say that the extra 20% is VAT - because until you are registered it is not VAT. You should simply annotate the invoice "This is not a VAT invoice. Registration has be applied for and a VAT invoice will follow in due course."
JumbleBumble

Manchester2019

Thanks everyone, that's really helpful.