Whether to pay a company when you have logged a complaint

eggmar

Firstly thanks all for your input. The issue I have is that I feel I was pressured into signing at the door as the cold caller made me believe I only had once chance at this and the huge percentage taken by them is to cover those cases that require their legal expertise to appeal against if unsuccessful. The salesperson is armed with valuation/banding information about your street and house but does not disclose it. He then proceeds to offer a free valuation if you sign up. I have never seen any evidence of the salespersons claims. For your money they say they will valuate properties, investigate bandings, process your claim, negotiate and obtain re-banding and appeal cases as they have a whole team of solicitors. There is not much work other than administation in all that as most of it can be done freely and easily. What is there to negotiate? I dont think you have to pay solicitors to appeal?
The worst bit is I'm claiming a tax back then paying VAT on it which also was not disclosed to me at the time of signing the contract. Thanks again

lincroft1710

eggmar said:

Firstly thanks all for your input. The issue I have is that I feel I was pressured into signing at the door as the cold caller made me believe I only had once chance at this and the huge percentage taken by them is to cover those cases that require their legal expertise to appeal against if unsuccessful. The salesperson is armed with valuation/banding information about your street and house but does not disclose it. He then proceeds to offer a free valuation if you sign up. I have never seen any evidence of the salespersons claims. For your money they say they will valuate properties, investigate bandings, process your claim, negotiate and obtain re-banding and appeal cases as they have a whole team of solicitors. There is not much work other than administation in all that as most of it can be done freely and easily. What is there to negotiate? I dont think you have to pay solicitors to appeal?
The worst bit is I'm claiming a tax back then paying VAT on it which also was not disclosed to me at the time of signing the contract. Thanks again

All CT bands are in the public domain.


Unless you recorded the doorstep conversation you cannot prove what the salesman claimed or didn't claim. Obviously any company that operates a no-win no-fee scheme will inflate their fees to cover the cost of these. Any business with a turnover in excess of £85,000 in a 12 month period must register for VAT and thus you would be charged VAT on their fees. Did you have nothing in writing? (not that there needs to be)

Aylesbury_Duck

It sounds a little like those sites that people use to renew their VED or driving licence, where they do a load of extra 'customer care' stuff around the basic process you can do yourself for nothing other than the application cost.  They're not doing anything wrong, it's down to the customer to look into it before agreeing.

Had you signed up and then realised before the refund was negotiated, you'd have a case, but given they appear to have performed the 'service' they agreed to, and successfully to boot, I don't think you've got much chance of getting a refund.  You might offer a smaller sum, to reflect what you think they've actually done, but I think that's probably about it.

Other than that, refuse to pay and see if and how the escalate it.

user1977

eggmar said:

Firstly thanks all for your input. The issue I have is that I feel I was pressured into signing at the door as the cold caller made me believe I only had once chance at this and the huge percentage taken by them is to cover those cases that require their legal expertise to appeal against if unsuccessful. The salesperson is armed with valuation/banding information about your street and house but does not disclose it. He then proceeds to offer a free valuation if you sign up. I have never seen any evidence of the salespersons claims. For your money they say they will valuate properties, investigate bandings, process your claim, negotiate and obtain re-banding and appeal cases as they have a whole team of solicitors. There is not much work other than administation in all that as most of it can be done freely and easily. What is there to negotiate? I dont think you have to pay solicitors to appeal?
The worst bit is I'm claiming a tax back then paying VAT on it which also was not disclosed to me at the time of signing the contract.

If you signed up on your doorstep then you would have had a cooling-off period, which was the time to reconsider whether the contract was a good idea. But I'm guessing we're well beyond that period now?

It's not, in principle, unreasonable to pay somebody to advise you on and deal with such appeals - the fact that you could do it all yourself doesn't make the fee any less lawful.

And you're not paying VAT on the refunded council tax, you're paying VAT on the professional fees (which happen to be based on a proportion of what your refund is). That's normal.

RefluentBeans

Hi - sorry if this is a really stupid question - but you have had your refund right? You didn’t state it in your OP or your reply - just wanted to confirm that. If you haven’t had the refund - then I would question the legitimacy of the company. 

If you’ve had the refund, then you can try and renegotiate the contract but they have every right to turn around and say no, pay us. 

If you feel they oversold the logistics that would be required to submit a form on your behalf (e.g. saying that it’ll require law degree, only solicitors can do it, it will likely be a court battle etc) then you may have an argument. But otherwise, if it’s outside of the 14 day cooling off period, then it’s unfortunate but look on the bright side, you’ve had a refund, and hopefully next years council tax will be lower now!

theoretica

Are they trying to charge you 60% + VAT where they quoted 60%?  Prices quoted to consumers should be inclusive of VAT.

Were you thinking of investigating your council tax band before they called round?  I presume they do work first to only call at houses with a chance of success.

tightauldgit

theoretica said:

Are they trying to charge you 60% + VAT where they quoted 60%?  Prices quoted to consumers should be inclusive of VAT.

Were you thinking of investigating your council tax band before they called round?  I presume they do work first to only call at houses with a chance of success.

There isn't a requirement for a quote for a service to show a VAT inclusive price but obviously it has to be accurate so it should have stated (and probably does somewhere if you check the paperwork) that the fees would be 60% + VAT.

As for the complaint in general - It doesn't feel like there's much mileage in it. If you feel like the work needed to get the reduction is trivial and you could have done it yourself then surely the question is 'why didn't you then?' and if the answer is 'I didn't know it was that easy' then that's why you pay someone else to do it!

I suppose the potential solution is just not to pay it and see if they come chasing but i imagine they would given their business.  

 

sheramber

Probably states in the T&C that VAT is added to the fee.

Since VAT is 20% of the amount charged and their fee is 60% of the refund how could it be included in the 60%

HillStreetBlues

born_again said:

Unless you have a actual complaint logged with them, then they are not aware of any issues.
There next step could well be taking you to court for non payment.

I would have thought that their 60% would be deducted from any refund. Before sending that refund to you.

I would have thought the council would refund the person who paid the CT.

Alderbank

HillStreetBlues said:

born_again said:

Unless you have a actual complaint logged with them, then they are not aware of any issues.
There next step could well be taking you to court for non payment.

I would have thought that their 60% would be deducted from any refund. Before sending that refund to you.

I would have thought the council would refund the person who paid the CT.

So would I.

I'd also expect the 'Council tax review service' to want paying up front before telling you anything.