PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. — More than 35,000 property owners in Monroe County were sent tax bills from Charlotte County by mistake, after an error by a shared printing service.
Watch Fox 4's Alex Orenczuk report on 35,000 erroneous Charlotte County property tax bills being sent to Monroe County property owners:
According to Charles Bear, Charlotte County Director of Tax Operations, property owners in both counties have been sent the correct bills. He said the 35,469 erroneous bills were sent after the printer completed Monroe County's bills and began working on Charlotte County's.
“All the Monroe County property owners received their proper tax bills, all the Charlotte County property owners received their proper tax bills,” said Bear. “In addition, our shared bill print vendor took Monroe County property mailing information, blended it with Charlotte County bills and inadvertently mailed those 35,000 bills.”
Wayne Dapser, lives in Monroe County and told Fox 4 he received a Charlotte County tax bill, despite not owning any property there.
“I opened it up, took a look at it, and said oh interesting a tax bill, but then I noticed that the address and such said Charlotte County and it was a $1300 tax bill,” said Dapser. “Obviously somebody screwed up big time, and the more we find out about these things, you know it's the joke of the day.”
Dapser said he immediately realized there had been an error, and never thought he was on the hook for the bill. Jokingly, he asked if he paid the bill before anyone else did if he would get the property.
“There are no ownership changes regardless of whether or not you pay the bill, you don’t get the rights to the property, “ said Bear.
At the Charlotte County Tax Collectors office, Bear said employees have been busy answering similar questions from people in Monroe County like Dapser who received one the bills.
“Obviously, the phone banks have gone absolutely bananas, and emails have gone bananas because all these people from Monroe County are trying to figure out what this bill is,” said Bear.
Both Charlotte County and Monroe County are urging anyone who gets one of these bills, not to pay it.
“If you are a Monroe county property owner and you received a Charlotte County property bill, do not pay the bill, please,” said Bear.
Bear said no personal data was breached as a result of the incident, and it is not known yet if anyone from Monroe County has paid the erroneous bill, but refunds can be issued in those cases.
TC Delivers, the mailing service at fault for issuing the bogus bills released the following letter explaining that the error slipped through the company’s quality control which you can read below:
