is there a deadline to claim the VAT,

Maysani

Dear All,
I helped a university friend who is in charged of many projects in the Middle East in April 2009. I order air conditioning spare parts from a U.K manufacturer who was unable to ship the good directly to the Middle East, they can only despatch the good to a
U.K address which was my house. Consequently, I found a shipping company based in the U.K who quoted a price (£700) to ship the spare parts to the Middle East as well as claiming the VAT (£1800) back and refunded it to me as long as I pay for the good and the invoice addressed to them (i.e. their name appear in the invoice not mine). I agreed and paid approximately £12K (including VAT) to the manufacture and £700 to the shipping company. The good were dispatched to the middle ease in May 2009 and the shipping company promised to submit the VAT claim in August 2009 and I should get my £1800 back by the end of September 2009. Up to now, the shipping company have not return my VAT, claiming that they are unable to summit the claim form due to so many excuses such as; the VAT office has changed the claim from paper to on line, their accountant is still working to get the book in order and so on and so forth. All those excuses are recorded in a chain of emails (more then hundred) I exchanged with the shipping company the start of this deal (April 2009) up to date. I spoke the managing director of the company last week who promised me that he will return the VAT once his accountant get the paper in order and submit the VAT form online. My question, is there a deadline to claim the VAT, the shipping company managing director assured me that there is not which I find it very hard to believe.
Many thanks for reading the long case and would appreciate any help advice