City of Toronto accidentally double charges thousands of residents

If you’re one of the City of Toronto’s pre-authorized payment customers for property tax, you might want to check your bank account.

With approximately 44,000 accounts affected on March 1, the City might have withdrawn your payment twice.

The City became aware of the error, which it said affected customers enrolled in the City’s Pre-Authorized Property Tax Payment Plan on the two- and six-instalment plan that had payments scheduled to be withdrawn on March 1.

According to a press release, the City has worked with its banking service provider, Royal Bank of Canada, “to resolve the issue swiftly and ensure that the duplicate billing is reversed immediately.” Corrections to customers’ bank accounts were made on the same day.

The City said it will work to prevent this from happening again in the future, and has apologized for any inconvenience this has caused its customers.

See also