RICHMOND, Va. — Jason Roop, who owns a marketing and public relations business in Richmond, had an experience at Richmond City Hall that he said wasn’t very comforting.
In June, he visited the finance department to resolve an issue with his tax bill. While there, he happened to find out that the city owed him hundreds of dollars.
“The person I was working with said, ‘Oh, would you like us to just pull that from your credit?’ And I said, ‘What do you mean my credit?’ She says, ‘Well, you have a $600-some credit on your account.’ And that blew me away a little bit,” Roop said.
As it turned out, Roop overpaid on a business personal property tax in 2022 but never knew about it.
“It’s as simple as this: The city had money that it owed me and never told me about it, and that was very frustrating,” Roop said. “None of this is common sense. Any business that you do work with as a customer, you assume that when you overpay or they have a balance on your account, they’ll let you know and return that money.”