A key principle of fairness is to quickly make things right when a mistake is made.

Bill and Janine were charged a penalty for a late payment of their property taxes after the Ministry of Finance sent their property tax notice to their old address. Bill had called BC Assessment and changed their address when they moved three years ago, and a previous year’s notice had been sent to their current address.

Bill spoke to a staff member at BC Assessment about the penalty they were being charged and was told there was nothing that could be done.

Not understanding why this year’s property tax bill was sent to their old address and feeling that the penalty was unfair, Bill reached out to us for help.

We investigated whether BC Assessment treated Bill and Janine fairly in declining to reimburse the late payment penalty charge. We looked into why their property tax notice was sent to their old address and we were informed that it was due to an administrative oversight. Recognizing the mistake, BC Assessment advised it would reimburse the penalty charged and a cheque would be mailed the following week.

We also confirmed that Bill and Janine’s address had been corrected in BC Assessment’s system to prevent the same issue from occurring in the future.

In cases where a public sector organization makes a mistake, we expect them to put things right quickly and effectively. In this case, BC Assessment reimbursed Bill and Janine of the late payment penalty charge, which we believed was a reasonable response. Given that BC Assessment agreed to address the fairness concern identified, we ended our investigation and closed our file.