Some city residents mailed wrong tax bill
Some Grand Haven homeowners may have thought summer arrived six months early, but they weren’t happy about it.
A computer glitch led to the city sending approximately 300 summer 2008 tax bills, instead of the winter 2008 bills due Feb. 14, to some mortgage companies.
“This is the age of computers and things happen fast,” City Finance Director Jim Bonamy said.
The error occurred in December, Bonamy said, and was soon discovered by city staff who quickly contacted the affected mortgage companies.
However, one company apparently didn’t correct the error in time, and raised the escrow amounts for its Grand Haven clients to incorrectly reflect the summer bill amounts twice a year. Summer bills have more taxing units and the amount due is much higher than winter bills.
Escrow is an optional amount added to mortgage payments that a company compiles to pay property taxes and home insurance bills for its customers paydayloans. It is typically readjusted annually.
“Inadvertently you may have received notice that there was not enough money in your escrow account to pay your taxes,” City Clerk Leah Spinner wrote to residents who have mortgages and escrow arrangements with Countrywide Financial Corp. “The property winter tax amount has been compiled and sent to Countrywide. Adjustments to your escrow account will be completed by your mortgage company.”
Bonamy figures about 25 percent of the 5,000 tax bills the city sends out twice a year involve escrow arrangements, and about a quarter of those were involved in the taxing error. He said this week that the city had received just 10 calls from city residents who had escrow issues.
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