John Lewis Refused to Cover Cost Of Inherent Fault,Engineers Report

Al_Ross

Are John Lewis Correct in stating that the company that does a report on a possible inherent fault must be VAT registered?

Jenni_D

AFAIK the engineer merely needs to be suitably-qualified ... VAT-registration is a tax matter not a qualification matter.

Sandtree

Al_Ross said:

Are John Lewis Correct in stating that the company that does a report on a possible inherent fault must be VAT registered?

No they're not. VAT registration is a matter of turnover and the fact an expert is turning over less than £85,000 in revenue a year doesn't undermine his qualifications... he could be part time for example and an employee using the same skills the rest of the time.

PS. JL made all kinds of strange claims about consumer rights during my fight with them last year over a faulty freezer.

IvanOpinion

Sandtree said:

PS. JL made all kinds of strange claims about consumer rights during my fight with them last year over a faulty freezer.

I remember it well

sparklep0ny

Sandtree said:

Al_Ross said:

Are John Lewis Correct in stating that the company that does a report on a possible inherent fault must be VAT registered?

No they're not. VAT registration is a matter of turnover and the fact an expert is turning over less than £85,000 in revenue a year doesn't undermine his qualifications... he could be part time for example and an employee using the same skills the rest of the time.

PS. JL made all kinds of strange claims about consumer rights during my fight with them last year over a faulty freezer.

I wonder if this is less about false consumer rights claims and more about John Lewis trying to cut their bill a bit.  If the report confirms the item has an inherent fault, JL would have to pay for the report. I'd guess they could claim the VAT back on this if the engineer is VAT registered?

KeithP

sparklep0ny said:

Sandtree said:

Al_Ross said:

Are John Lewis Correct in stating that the company that does a report on a possible inherent fault must be VAT registered?

No they're not. VAT registration is a matter of turnover and the fact an expert is turning over less than £85,000 in revenue a year doesn't undermine his qualifications... he could be part time for example and an employee using the same skills the rest of the time.

PS. JL made all kinds of strange claims about consumer rights during my fight with them last year over a faulty freezer.

I wonder if this is less about false consumer rights claims and more about John Lewis trying to cut their bill a bit.  If the report confirms the item has an inherent fault, JL would have to pay for the report. I'd guess they could claim the VAT back on this if the engineer is VAT registered?

Yes but it the 'expert' is not VAT registered, then JL will not have to pay any VAT, so it follows that JL would actually save themselves the trouble of having to claim anything back. 

Sandtree

sparklep0ny said:

Sandtree said:

Al_Ross said:

Are John Lewis Correct in stating that the company that does a report on a possible inherent fault must be VAT registered?

No they're not. VAT registration is a matter of turnover and the fact an expert is turning over less than £85,000 in revenue a year doesn't undermine his qualifications... he could be part time for example and an employee using the same skills the rest of the time.

PS. JL made all kinds of strange claims about consumer rights during my fight with them last year over a faulty freezer.

I wonder if this is less about false consumer rights claims and more about John Lewis trying to cut their bill a bit.  If the report confirms the item has an inherent fault, JL would have to pay for the report. I'd guess they could claim the VAT back on this if the engineer is VAT registered?

I'm no VAT expert but drawing parallels to insurance claims they cannot, they are not the beneficiary of the service.  Insurers/TPAs etc can only recover a percentage of the VAT anyway because their revenue is generally generated from VAT Exempt products/services but they can get some back. For claims, paying to repair customers/third parties cars etc they cannot recover any of the VAT because they don't receive the goods/services even if the payment discharges their contractual liabilities. 

Diamandis

It's probably more to show the report wasnt just written by your mate Dave down the pub but providing they note the expertise they have in the area I doubt a court would say they could reject it on vat grounds.

Al_Ross

They are offering about a third of the price I paid,no mention of the cost of the report and they want to collect the faulty sound bar,is this normal?

macman

It's just a cynical ruse to make it harder and more expensive to commission an independent report, and so deter you from doing so. They can 'state' whatever they like, but no judge is going to rule against your claim just because the independent report was provided by a non-VAT registered person or company. It's completely unenforcable.

Al_Ross

They are accepting my non vat report,but not offered to pay for it and saying once payment is made they want to collect the faulty goods.