VAT on builders quotes

Doozergirl

grumbler said:

Doozergirl said:

grumbler said:

Doozergirl said:

TrixA said:

Ok, so I asked the builder and his response was that he's not currently registered for VAT, but is in the process of becoming registered at the moment. It turns out that he and his associate had previously been working for another local company, and have recently created their own company, hence they have only just reached the VAT registration threshold.

I am still a bit confused though, does this mean that we should add 20% to the price he has quoted us?

In a word, yes.  

I'd say, "In a word, no".

Why would I care about his VAT status, registration etc.? I asked for the price and was given the price. Everything else is his business, not mine.

If he doesn't want to give me a clear and unambiguous quote, I'd just say goodbye to him.

Say goodbye if you like, but does the OP
need to account for VAT with this person if they want a finished project with them? 

It's the person who has to account for VAT, not the OP.

Let's be a little more pragmatic here in order to avoid a disaster. 

If the OP takes the quote on face value and the builder suddenly starts putting VAT on the invoices of their first major project, what is going to happen is an impasse when the builder runs out of money.  There are three options here
1. OP either coughs up
2. legal battle ensues
or the most likely, before the legal stuff gets to happen...
3. builder f**** off leaving an unfinished project, folds their new company so OP has no comeback and goes back to being a subby because they can't count.  OP is left with £20k of work to do that they can't afford and other builders don't want to take on. 

The OP needs to account for it because they appear to be the sensible one in this situation.  

MX5huggy

TrixA said:

Incompetence as in, he should have alerted us to the fact that VAT would be payable as part of the quote?

I am finding it all rather frustrating, as the need to find an extra 20% will likely make the project unaffordable for us.

How does the Quote compare with the other 2 or 3 quotes you have got? 

You’re and inexperienced client they are an inexperienced company, it’s not going to end well. 

TrixA

MX5huggy said:

TrixA said:

Incompetence as in, he should have alerted us to the fact that VAT would be payable as part of the quote?

I am finding it all rather frustrating, as the need to find an extra 20% will likely make the project unaffordable for us.

How does the Quote compare with the other 2 or 3 quotes you have got? 

You’re and inexperienced client they are an inexperienced company, it’s not going to end well. 

We have previously had 3 other quotes, but they are out of date now as we had to put the project on hold due to Covid and related family circumstances. We're looking at getting a couple of those to update their quotes now. However, all three of the previous quotes were in the same ballpark so there's clearly a going rate around here. For that reason I would be surprised if any work out significantly cheaper than the new one, it's just disappointing to realise how much everything has gone up.

Although the company is new there are other factors in favour of using the builders in question, I'm not going to go into all the details in this thread.

youth_leader

I've had two building jobs done this year, and had to pay VAT on both.  Does add up - the floors here cost £9K, VAT was £1,800.  

Listed buildings used to be exempt from VAT, not sure if that is still the case.

Doozergirl

youth_leader said:

I've had two building jobs done this year, and had to pay VAT on both.  Does add up - the floors here cost £9K, VAT was £1,800.  

Listed buildings used to be exempt from VAT, not sure if that is still the case.

Not any more, no.