May 19, 2009
Billing Error for Real Estate Taxes Confuses Recipients
30 Comments »Were you as confused as I was to receive a Real Estate and Special Tax Bill from the City? Don’t call finance! They know of the issue and are working to get the bills to the mortgage companies. I called my mortgage company before I received the following info from Kathy Graziano’s office, and they confirmed that they were expecting to receive the bill directly.
The Department of Finance recently mailed all real estate bills to the property owner, including those bills intended for owner’s mortgage escrow accounts. This has generated a tremendous volume of phone calls for everyone. Finance distributed an explanation to the 311 Call Center and other departments who may be receiving calls.
The owner does not have to do anything. If the owner has an escrow account, do not pay the bill. The correct bill will be provided to the mortgage company for payment.
Thanks for posting this. Although…. You know what’s going to be awesome? When I get a delinquent tax notice because they never mailed the tax bill to my mortgage company. Buhhh.
Thank you! I had it on my todo list to call and see WTF was going on.
Thanks for finding out about this. It is funny how things just work like clockwork for years then something goes haywire.
This isn’t the first time it’s happened – I get real estate bills every three or four years.
Cait, I had the same concern, the phonebot lady I spoke to at my mortgage company said to call back June 1 to make sure they’d received the bill and I plan to do so.
Yeah, I got this bill last year so I’m going to call Wells Fargo to make sure, but still: City of Richmond, GET IT TOGETHER.
The City of Richmond strikes again!
Thank you so much for posting this. I spent much of yesterday freaking out.
Hummmm. Pretty gutsy move by the City to let the residents know just how HIGH their tax bite is in these times of declining property values by sending them the bill directly.
[...] light of this snafu, let’s take a walk down memory lane, shall [...]
A trio of questions:
1. If this has happened before – why has it happened again?
2. How much did this snafu cost and who will pay for it? (Pretty silly question since we all know who pays for things like this and the former mayor’s arrogance and subsequent legal battles).
3. What action is being taken to ensure it doesn’t happen again? Perhaps some changes are in order at “Finance.”
[...] that what I pay into an escrow account for? Our sister site on the other side of the river, Hills and Heights, clears things up a bit: The Department of Finance recently mailed all real estate bills to the [...]
GAR has it right, especially question #3. The silence is deafening.
I may be the lone dissenter, but as far as mistakes and blunders, this one seems mild and easily remedied. I’d rather be sent a duplicate bill rather than having my tax inappropriately calculated, for example.
Hummmm.
Memory is failing, but didn’t this same crew send out a bunch of bogus delinquent car tax bills last year, causing much confusion and concern and didn’t bother to tell anyone until the news media blew the whistle on them?
Oh, it’s all just sunshine and bunnies for you, isn’t it, Page? :D
It tweaks me mostly because A) they weren’t duplicate bills; they were sent to us instead of the mortgage companies and B) it is so very much easier to come up with the things the city gets wrong than it is to summon up what happens smoothly/properly/promptly.
Perhaps we need to have a post about “Things We Love About Richmond, and Why It’s Better Than It Was Ten Years Ago.” I can contribute, and perhaps it would help to make us less twitchy about what might not be that big a deal.
yeah, you know me Jennifer. Glass have full and all that crap! ;) I agree with your points. (I meant duplicate as in, eventually, it will be duplicated to the mortgage company).
I’d be curious to know how big a deal it is.
Shooting from the hip without looking at hard numbers. 200,000 residents. 60% live in homes. 2.5 people per home. 60% of the homes have escrow’s collected.
200,000 * 0.60 * 0.60 / 2.5 = 28,800 homes.
28,000 * $0.33 (Bulk mail rate) = $9504 that could have been spent on something else.
How many summer youth jobs is that?
Tonight’s channel 12 news passed along the “official” info. The bills were sent out to inform the citizens of how much they would be paying and was not a mistake in where the bills were sent. What a load of crap. It’s twice the insult now. And, they said it cost $13, 000. That’s a lot of pot holes that could have been filled.
For Jennifer and Page:
1) The lake restoration project, not even on the list of things to put on the drawing board 10 yerars ago.
2) an affordable housing ordinance and trust fund, to begin to create, with the private sector, affordable houses for city workforce and others.
3) a tax relief program for the elderly and disabled. Five years ago, the FInance Dept said they didn’t want to let people know about the plan, because they would just apply. This year the elderly and sdiabled are applying in record numbers for relief.
4) a conservation easement for JRP. Ten years ago, the Jamison Administration killed just such a proposal.
5) ten years ago just bgeginning to see the interest in warehouse renovations into residential. Today hundreds of new housing units, adding millios of dollasrs in tax revenues.
6) ten years ago, virtually every school failing. Today, virtually every school meeting state and federal standards.
These are a few. Others can add others. I also know of each and every failing, because I live them too, but you asked for successes.
Charlie Fishburne on WCVE radio had a sound bite from Mike Wallace, the head guy in Richmond’s massive PR office, saying that the bills were sent out on purpose to be “transparent”.
Truth or spin?
Uh huh. “Transparency” would have meant an announcement before/as the bills went out, to avoid confusion. Also, printing on them “THIS IS NOT A BILL” in big red letters would have supported the assertion.
Never mind the kids – that’s a week and a half’s worth of the new RPS attorney’s salary. Horrors!
I bought my home in the city over 15 years ago and this is the first time this has ever happened to me. No too bad, really.
Per # 21: Spin.
I have to pay mine directly anyway, but it seems the city and it’s record keeping need massive improvement. My family has had multiple incidents of property taxes being billed for vehicles no longer owned. DMV has it straight, but the city has great difficulty in getting it straight, even when you go down there and insist they rectify the situation and they verify all is good and then next year…..you get a bill again. It’s maddening!
So my mortgage company never received a bill from the city. Funny, huh?
Melanie, based on your comment I quickly called my mortgage company and they received and paid the bill. whew. not always smooth sailing, is it?
[...] that the confusion over the city sending tax bills seems to be over. Here is a bit of information for those of you that pay your city tax bills [...]
[...] on the admission tax situation in Richmond. And in a magnificent Q2 finale, we had the amazing real estate tax cluster-eff, covered by Hills & [...]