VAT on a private sale

Although I was born and brought up in the UK, I’ve lived abroad for the last 20 years. I’m in the UK because my Mum recently passed way. I’ve used my foreign eBay account to sell 3 items and discovered eBay has charged buyers VAT on the items I’ve sold. I only discovered this when the items were already sold and explains why buyers weren’t prepared to put in bids as high as I’d expected. Is there any way to recover this VAT? If so, how? Should VAT even be charged on a sale of secondhand goods when neither party is a business?

Presumably your eBay account is setup in another Country, so when you made a sale in the UK, eBay will have seen that you are a foreign/overseas seller seller goods to UK consumers and VAT applies to such sales. Generally eBay are liable to account for VAT on sales to UK consumers when the sale is made by a non-UK resident trader. You can't get the VAT back from HMRC as you are not UK VAT registered, you should contact eBay and explain the situation and they may be able to assist, whether eBay are correct to have charged VAT will depend on the type of eBay account you have, the value of what was sold and the location of the goods at time of sale. Link to the guidance below, worth reading all of the guide and then if not applicable to you, take it up with eBay, it's not for HMRC to resolve if eBay have charged VAT incorrectly, eBay need to correct their error if applicable. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/vat-and-overseas-goods-sold-to-customers-in-the-uk-using-online-marketplaces