Readers' forum : Garage developer

I act for a client who owns a property which consists of two garages one next to it and the other 30 metres away. Planning permission has been obtained to convert the separate garage into a five-bedroom detached house which will have its own land registry entry and be sold by my client on the open market. My thinking is that because the garage is non-residential property the sale will be zero rated and building services will be subject to 5% VAT. So my client can register for VAT as a partnership (he and his wife own the property) to claim input tax on the project costs. Can readers confirm that my thinking is correct?

Query 18 863– Convertor Man.

Reply by Castlegate

The query is unclear. If the property ‘consists of two garages one next to it’ what is ‘it’?...