The posh new shower room is finished. Hurrah! We've done all the snagging jobs now, (notice the word WE, and not the Bathroom company), except for the window catches that needing a spruce up with a can of car spray paint. It's such bliss having a shower now. No struggling to get the water temperature right. No cold water shocks if some one turns the kitchen tap on. No cold flappy shower curtain wrapping itself on your body. Just a refreshing deluge of water pouring over you.
The Show room guy turned up the other evening to collect the redundant and useless Wet Wall panels. Only after I had rang him to come and remove them. I noticed he had an invoice in his hands which I carefully ignored. When he had the panels in his van I commented that I presumed they would be removed from the bill. The invoice was hastily stuffed in his pocket. He said 'Yes all the unused and unpacked ones. So I reminded him that the others were of no use to me, not fit for purpose and the fault was not mine. The room hadn't had a proper survey before work started. After a bit of blustering he said
'Well come down to the showroom and we'll see what we can do.'
I then casually told him that I'd already paid all the tradesman their portion of the Bill. Whoops. That upset him.
'What did you pay them" he asked.
'The amount you'd invoiced me for their work' I said.
'But I have to take 17.5% VAT off that' he blustered 'I'll have to get it back off them'
'Why' I retorted 'They are not VAT registered I reminded him'.
'But I am' He said.
'But they're not and I've paid them, so, where's the problem.'
'Come to the showroom and we'll sort this out' he replied.
I'd already sussed out that his bill to me had VAT on all goods supplied and all work carried out on the job. If I had paid the whole invoice he then would deduct VAT on the portion he paid to the tradesman.
Something didn't gell right. I'm effectively paying double the VAT on jobs that are not VAT registered. I asked a friend who's a retired accountant. He agreed with me and thought I was right.
After a word with No 3 son about the whole job his reply was. Mum don't push your blood pressure up any more over this, he's had the money for the good supplied he's made his profit on them. The trades men have been paid. You're happy with the finish shower room. Enjoy it. The goods you haven't paid for were not suitable for the job. Some he'll resell, so let him write the rest off as a tax loss. Companies do this all the time. Don't go to him or communicate with him. Shove the paperwork in a draw and forget about it and enjoy the shower. The small amount of money the paper work shows he's owed should be your compensation for all the stress you've had. He's not going to pursue you for that. It's not worth his while and even if he does he can't hassle you only take you to the Small Claims court and he wouldn't win
After yet another trip to the surgery this morning, where my blood pressure is still not behaving and there's also small blip with an ECG recording I decided to take No. 3 Sons advice and chill out. Mind you loosing weight would probably have the same effect!
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