A banking error resulted in property tax money to be taken early from the accounts of Victoria residents who paid in post-dated cheques.
Royal Bank of Canada, or RBC does the banking for the City of Victoria. According to the city the bank has said they will reverse bank service charges, fees and overdraft interest if applicable. The city also said anyone who's cheque bounced due to this will not have to pay any late tax penalty.
RBC South Vancouver Island regional vice president Mark Lovick says an error made at the bank resulted in the cheques being processed early.
“Due to an internal error at RBC some post-dated cheques with the City of Victoria, tax payments, received at city hall were negotiated by RBC early,” Lovick said. “We essentially ran a processing file [Thursday], when in fact we should have been holding it until processing it on Tuesday.”
Lovick says that the error was entirely on their end, and the City of Victoria is not to blame at all.
He says they are working to resolve the issue, but aren’t yet sure how many people are affected in this error.
“We are still trying to determine that. We think it’s somewhere on either side of 1,000,” Lovick said.
There is no estimate yet as to when the issue will be resolved, according to Lovick.
“We are actively working on it. Due to the long weekend that is going to create a challenge,” Lovick said. “We’ll know the full scope of the issue probably by mid-to late Tuesday and we’ll spend the rest of the week contacting the impacted clients.”
Lovick says if you notice your cheque was cashed early - contact your bank who will work with RBC to resolve issues.