A number of people contacted The Leader after receiving letters from debt recovery specialist SR Law, on behalf of council, over unpaid rates or bills for the last quarter of 2016.

As soon as Tamworth financial planner John Green got a letter from the debt collectors pursing him for an overdue water bill of $91, he checked his bank statement.

“I knew I paid it early as per normal, but for some reason it never credited,” Mr Green told The Leader.

When he rang to clear up the matter, the council told Mr Green he had entered the wrong BPAY number. But when it was read back to him, Mr Green found it was in fact correct.

While Mr Green’s matter has been resolved, he’s concerned others will end up paying their bill a second time.

Susan Judd also received a letter “out of the blue” for an overdue water bill of $131, and said it was a frustrating and distressing ordeal to clear her name.

“Mistakes happen, I understand that, but you should own up to a mistake, put your hand up and fix it - this dragged on for days,” she said. 

“I think people should know about it. Other people might pay it without looking into it and some would get a shock. Hopefully others will come forward and realise that it is not just them who have unfairly received a letter.”

A number of real estate agencies received the same letters on behalf of the clients they manage properties for. One agency received up to 15 notices for overdue bills that had already been paid. In one instance, the council rates had been credited to the wrong address. However, all the agents agreed council had quickly rectified the matter.

A council spokeswoman said payment errors can occur for various reasons, such as human error or ratepayers mixing up reference numbers.

“In the examples provided to council for this story and where the human error has occurred when council processed payment, we can confirm that we have apologised to the ratepayers [and] resolved the matter,” she said.

Every quarter council issues about 23,000 rate notices and 20,000 water notices.

“On average Council receives up to 20 enquiries per month with legitimate concerns about whether a payment has been correctly processed – this represents less than 1 per cent of the total notices issued.” 

SR Law said those accidentally referred to the debt collectors would not have a black mark recorded against their financial record.

“If we maintain a file on a person then that, of itself, does not affect their credit rating or financial record at all,” an SR Law spokesman said.

Council encouraged any ratepayer who believed they had wrongly received a letter to contact its financial services team on 6767 5555.