North Huron billing glitch frustrates hundreds

BY SHAWN LOUGHLIN

Last week, approximately 350 North Huron residents awoke to find some money missing from their accounts, taken by way of pre-authorized payment withdrawal by the township in error.

 

It was the morning of Wednesday, Dec. 4 that the residents noticed their money was missing. According to Clerk and acting Chief Administrative Officer Carson Lamb, there was an “administrative error” in processing pre-authorized tax payment withdrawals for residents who used the monthly property tax payment plan, resulting in the money being withdrawn in error. At 10 a.m. that morning, Lamb e-mailed The Citizen, saying that the township was aware of the error and which residents had been impacted by it. He also noted that a solution had been identified and that the township’s finance department was working diligently to correct the issue.

 

Later that afternoon, just before 4:30 p.m., Lamb e-mailed again, saying that approximately 350 people were billed in error and that the township’s finance department was working with the township’s financial institution to have the charges reversed as soon as possible and that the request was being escalated. 

 

By the next day, the funds had been returned, but there were complaints about banking or overdraft fees associated with the erroneous withdrawal and questions about the township covering those costs. In an e-mail to The Citizen on Friday morning, Lamb said that finance department staff was in the process of reaching out to the affected financial institutions about having the overdraft and bank fees reversed as well.