Corporation Of Delta, BC
, Finance Department Unethical practice, charging penalty on current property taxes that have been paid in full

The finance department has been charging me a penalty on property taxes that have been paid in full. The problem began a few years ago when a homeowner grant application went astray. I was asked to provide proof of ownership; this I did to the satisfaction of the employee that I reported to. Later, the Corporation's mistake - losing the grant application - was compounded by the provincial government sending me a cheque to compensate me.

I held the cheque waiting for the provincial govenment to realize its mistake and ask that the cheque be returned. In the meantime, the Corporation demanded that I send the cheque to it. I responded that as it did not send the cheque I saw no need to comply. I sent the received money back to the provincial government and pointed out that the mistake was twofold: one, the Corporation has lost or somehow misplaced my grant application and two, the provincial government had compounded the Corporation's mistake by forwarding a cheque to me.

In the meantime, the Corporation assessed me a penalty. I wrote several letters in response to each 'dunning' letter I received from the Corporation; I explained in detail how the initial error had been made by the finance department. The problem is that the finance department entered its mistake in its computer and now that false information is continually and constantly being regurgitated ad nauseam. An appeal to the mayor has resulted in a response that is bureaucratic in the extreme and completely avoids the issue; that is, the Corporation of Delta screwed up and as a consequence is penalizing me for its employees' incompetence.

There is no justice in the Corporation of Delta's finance department, taxation section. I wonder how many other property owners in Delta have been subjected to the same idiocy as that received by me over the past few years. I did not commit a crime; I paid my taxes in full annually yet I am being persecuted by a mindless bureaucracy that has no compunction to [a] admit its mistake or [b] to remedy its callous behaviour.

A warning to all Deltans: beware the useless bureaucrats that infest the taxation section of the finance department of the Corporation of Delta, British Columbia, Canada.

Cy
Richmond, British Columbia
Canada