Not told of VAT on land purchase

mosaicsquares

In all honesty, I can't see becoming VAT registered to claim this money back would be viable, I'm not buying for a business, it's for my own use, and I'm sure HMRC wouldn't like it.. plus I'd like to avoid more costs and headaches.
As the estate agents asked me at the time what I would be doing with it, and I told them I'd be growing things.. they can see I'm not a developer. Who is the ombudsman for estate agents?

eddddy

mosaicsquares said:

As the estate agents asked me at the time what I would be doing with it, and I told them I'd be growing things.. they can see I'm not a developer. Who is the ombudsman for estate agents?

Most EAs are members of the Property Ombudsman Scheme (you'd need to check your EA) - and assuming you are a consumer (as opposed to a business) you can ultimately complain to them.

But what outcome would you be looking for?

For example, is it:

1. Just to complain about the EA's poor conduct
2. Because you've suffered a loss as a result of the EA's misleading information, and you want compensation (e.g. you've paid legal fees which you wouldn't have paid, if you'd been given accurate information about VAT.)
3. Because you want to buy the land at the price originally stated

The Ombudsman can't make option 3 happen.
Personally, I wouldn't bother with option 1 - life's too short.
Option 2 - People have succeeded with similar complaints to the Ombudsman in the past, and the EA was instructed to pay compensation.

Here is the complaints process: https://www.tpos.co.uk/consumers/how-to-make-a-complaint

macman

A 'huge estate' is obviously going to be registered for VAT, given that the threshold is only £85K.