Accountant hidden fees

rainbliss · 8 December 2019 at 9:39PM

Hello,

Any thoughts. I had to move on from an accountant, I started a limited company last January and very new to this world. I chased him about bookeeping and nothing has happened, not even payroll for months - I mostly get out of the office replies he is constantly on hols.

Anyway - he sends me an invoice for items that were never quoted for or discussed. For example, he registered the company at his address, without me knowing or asking him to do so. I am now moving the address to my address, he wants to charge 250 pounds for keeping it at his address, we never discussed this or agreed. I only found out my company was registered there in august and asked him why he was vague and said it would be easier.

There are other items in the invoice such a vague 'tax advice' for the year before, when he has already charged me 500 for a tax return for that year, never really sent quotes or was transparent about his fees.

What shall I do? I obviously now have to pay somebody else and backdate everything so I'm not very happy.

00ec25 · 8 December 2019 at 11:19PM

not sure what your question is?

you are of course entitled to have your company registered wherever you want it to be.
That said, many owners do not want the registered office, which is in the public domain, to be their own personal address, because of the risk of "callers" at home.
Therefore, pretty common to use the accountant's address, or one of the many registered office address providers if you prefer - both will expect to be paid for providing that service obviously. If you choose that option then privacy comes with a cost.

what do you think you have to "backdate"?

changing accountants is easy, just pick another one and give them the contact details of the old and leave them to arrange the handover between themselves. If you have chosen qualified accountants in both cases then they are obliged by their professional institutes' rules to do the handover "smoothly"

rainbliss · 8 December 2019 at 11:40PM

Hi and thank you for your reply. The question was : shall i pay for a service that i did not request and for which i was never informed of the cost / never given a quote? I am contracting and only have 2 clients I don't mind using my address, at any rate he should have discussed expalined.

silvercar · 8 December 2019 at 11:56PM

You start by making a complaint to the practice concerned. If you get nowhere you complain to the body that the practice is registered with. Start by asking for a copy of their complaints procedure.

Pennywise · 9 December 2019 at 9:09AM

silvercar wrote: »

You start by making a complaint to the practice concerned. If you get nowhere you complain to the body that the practice is registered with. Start by asking for a copy of their complaints procedure.

Agree wtih this. Assuming you chose a qualified/regulated firm, you'll have been given terms of business which must include fee charging structure, complaints procedure etc. Follow through that. If they havn't followed their professional body regulations, you can make a formal complaint to their regulatory body.

Unfortunately, if you didn't choose a qualified/regulated firm, then you're recourse is through the courts, like any other B2B transaction.

rainbliss · 9 December 2019 at 9:37AM

Hello,
Thank you, never been sent terms of business or pricing. He’s a one man band that was recommended to me by someone who also ended up having problems.
I’ll follow your advice and start a complaints procedure.
Thank you , Valentina

kazwookie · 9 December 2019 at 9:44AM

Hi

First get business savy, ie take the bull by the horns or what ever expression you want to use.

1. Go through the paper work you do have from the accountant.
2. Re read copies of any thing you sent him, (you do have copies don't you?, you have sent written instructions haven't you?)
3. Ask for a meeting to clear up what you do / don't want and what you are prepared to pay for, follow this meeting up with a letter along the lines I agree.............. / you will supply ...............
4. I moved my company business address from A to B and was not charge for it, (I did it on line, via HMRC / companies house web site)

Pennywise · 9 December 2019 at 9:54AM

rainbliss wrote: »

Hello,
Thank you, never been sent terms of business or pricing. He’s a one man band that was recommended to me by someone who also ended up having problems.
I’ll follow your advice and start a complaints procedure.
Thank you , Valentina

First thing is to find out if he's qualified/regulated by an accountancy regulatory body. At least if he is, you can threaten a formal complaint to that body.

"Accountancy" isn't protected/regulated in the same way as solicitors, architects, etc. Literally anyone can call themselves an accountant, whether they've passed exams or not, whether they've experience or not, whether they're in a professional body or not, whether they've insurance or not.

It really is wild west out there these days with huge numbers of people trading as accountants without insurance, experience, qualifications nor membership/regulation of an accountancy body.

Buyer beware!

Accountant hidden fees

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