DIY VAT reclaim experience

[cjsparkey]

 

Just thought I’d share our experience of our DIY VAT claim with HMRC

 

We achieved BC sign off at the end of September 25 but had moved in 9 months prior.

 

11/12/25 submitted online application spreadsheet with all invoices up to the date of submission

16/12/25 received request for 10 invoices

17/12/25 uploaded requested invoices

12/1/26 received notification of payout with one disputed invoice noted

19/1/26 sent clarification off disputed invoice (I had mistakenly uploaded a pro forma invoice instead of the full VAT invoice so corrected this)

20/1/26 received initial payment 

9/2/26 received outstanding payment for the disputed invoice completing the claim

 

For us the HMRC system seemed to work pretty well.

 

 

 

 

[Great_scot_selfbuild]

@cjsparkey Thanks for this - I'm thinking about this on and off, weighing up if it's worth paying one of the VAT reclaim people or just DIY it. We're organised in our register of items that are VAT reclaim-able and copies of receipts.

 

Any points to note in terms of lessons (good/bad/would do differently)?

[cjsparkey]

First off it’s definitely something you can do yourself just needs a bit of organisation.

Our big mistake was not being good at recording invoices regularly enough, if I was doing this again I’d record invoices weekly onto a spreadsheet as it was we spent 3 full days going through invoices, emailed invoices and online checkouts to get everything together.

Then make sure you have full VAT invoices, we found loads that were statements or receipts and had to go back and get VAT invoices, again if we had done this weekly it would have been easier.

 

Otherwise the HMRC system works well, it’s easy to start the application online, I did call them with some queries a number of times and the people I spoke to were very helpful.

 

[kandgmitchell]

On 12/02/2026 at 19:11, Great_scot_selfbuild said:

I'm thinking about this on and off, weighing up if it's worth paying one of the VAT reclaim people or just DIY it.

Do it yourself - it's not difficult just a bit tedious and as @cjsparkey says you do discover some of the paperwork you've been keeping is a bit dog eared and maybe not entirely clear. However, they did reduce our claim stating they were missing invoices (but we had uploaded them), we uploaded them again and they paid those out without question.

[GEO-PAR]

Hi guys - As a self builder currently going through this process myself, I’m just doing a little research trying to understand how people handle the VAT reclaim on a DIY self-build.

For those who’ve done it:

• How did you keep track of receipts?

• Roughly how many did you end up with?

• Did you use a spreadsheet or software?

• What was the most stressful part?

• Would you have paid for something that organised everything and produced a HMRC-ready schedule?

I’m not selling anything — just trying to understand the pain points. Thanks

[Gone West]

3 hours ago, GEO-PAR said:

For those who’ve done it:

1. Boxed in order, small receipts stapled to a sheet of A4. Check receipts thoroughly before putting in box to make sure they have a VAT number and are proper VAT receipts. Each receipt was numbered in order to match the spreadsheet.

2. 385

3. Spreadsheet

4. No stress, my partner did it.

5. No

That was back in 2018, things have changed now I think.

Edited 6 hours ago by Gone West

[Andeh]

Yep, we found the whole system really good! 

 

Excel sheet list, evidence with matched titles to line item. Item, source, price, vat etc etc matched them over to their online system and uploaded, and submitted.

 

Have to say, it worked really well.