The Newport News Treasurer’s Office recently mailed real estate tax bills to 1,200 Newport News homeowners by mistake.
The city’s treasurer’s office typically does not send bills to homeowners with a mortgage company that maintains an escrow account to pay their real estate taxes. But City Treasurer Marty Eubank said about 1,200 homeowners, whose mortgage companies use Lereta tax service corporation to pay their bills, had bills mistakenly sent to them.
He said this was because Lereta had submitted to the city an incomplete electronic list of real estate accounts for which it pays the tax bills. Those not included on the list had bills mailed to them.
“So they send us a file, what we call a commitment file, saying, ‘Hey, these are the accounts that we’re servicing. We’re committing to pay these,’” Eubank said.
Eubank said the treasurer’s office has since reached out to Lereta about the error, and Lereta has sent a complete and updated file. He said the 1,200 people who the city wrongly sent bills will have their bills paid by their mortgage company.