When Daniel Wavering opened up a letter from the City of Richmond’s Finance Department in early April, he initially thought it was some sort of scam.
“The letter said something to the effect of ‘Hey, you might be getting a — or you may have received a rebate check for your property taxes addressed to somebody else,’” the Highland Park resident said. “Their instructions were to either return it or destroy it, and that they would send the correct one out.”
Wavering said he was left feeling confused, because he hadn’t received a check addressed to him or anyone else — so he threw the letter out. Later, he learned through a reddit thread he wasn’t the only Richmond resident in this situation.
Since moving to Richmond two years ago, Wavering said, interactions within City Hall have only deepened his doubts about the city’s ability to perform basic services.
“It continues to affect my trust in the city, and it’s not just a one-off,” said Wavering, who said each of his contacts with the city government has been “not as smooth as you would expect, or outright negative or extremely frustrating.”
He added: “At this point, I’m almost at an eye roll.”
In 2024, Richmond City Council voted to maintain the existing real estate tax rate at $1.20 per $100 of assessed value — among the highest in the region. In order to provide some relief to residents, members also approved then-Mayor Levar Stoney’s RVA Stay plan, which included sending a one-time rebate check to eligible residents at the start of 2025. But in March 2025, new Mayor Danny Avula’s administration admitted to mailing out several thousand checks printed with an incorrect name.
On April 28, the city issued a press release detailing how an internal audit following the initial “administrative error” revealed further shortcomings in the city’s rebate process. The release also announced the April 21 resignation of revenue director Jamie Atkinson — who had been hired last year to lead revenue collections, property assessments and oversee tax relief programs.
According to the news release, the finance department’s initial “administrative error” led approximately 8,300 out of nearly 60,000 rebate checks to be made out to the Hartshorn Community Council, a name matching an organization registered with the State Corporation Commission.
Albert Ruffin has been a board member of the Hartshorn Community Council for the last 10 years: It’s a homeowners association in Richmond that he told VPM News manages nearly 100 townhomes. As treasurer, Ruffin said his primary role is receiving payments and posting them to the council’s spreadsheet.
In late March, Ruffin said he began getting calls from individuals claiming to have mail that belonged to the council. Some forwarded it to Ruffin’s office, while others personally dropped it off.
“All of them the same — it was a rebate check,” he said.
After doing his own investigation, Ruffin said he determined HCC was not entitled to the rebate checks sent by the city because most of them were for properties not associated with the organization.
“I did not deposit any of those checks. I know that we were not entitled to it and by depositing it, I know if you get a refund, you're not entitled to, you got to pay it back,” Ruffin said. “So I didn’t want to risk depositing anything.”
Once the Department of Finance Director Sheila White became aware of the error that caused Ruffin to receive a stack of incorrectly issued checks, the city said she began an audit of the entire rebate check process.
White’s internal audit revealed several issues: Rebate checks for owners who sold their city property in 2024 were incorrectly sent to current property owners; 156 rebate checks were issued for parcels that did not exist in 2024; and correctly issued checks were halted due to the nature of the original “administrative error.”
VPM News requested an interview with White, but was told she is focused on rebate checks for the foreseeable future.
VPM News also submitted a list of questions to the city about what exactly caused the “administrative error” in the first place, how long the reissue process was estimated to take, and a breakdown of how much fixing the errors was going to cost city taxpayers. The City of Richmond did not respond to these questions by publication time.
Before the city issued its official release, councilors received an update on the ongoing rebate errors during their informal meeting, as reported by The Richmonder. The update not only led to a withdrawal of a proposal to reduce the city’s real estate tax rate, but also sparked concern about maintaining high rates when the city struggles to issue accurate rebates in the first place.
During the council meeting, 3rd District Councilor Kenya Gibson said the rebate process had been “mistake after mistake.”
“This is especially maddening in a moment when we are learning about another issue at the water plant and debating the merit of five figure raises for the highest paid administrators,” Gibson wrote in an email to VPM News on Wednesday.
Richmond’s finance department has faced scrutiny in recent years following a string of errors, including billing accuracy problems with the city’s meal tax and staffing issues. A 2024 external audit obtained by WTVR highlighted several deficiencies within the finance department’s customer service unit, finding that employees ignored emails, slept at their desks, closed 311 tickets without servicing them and had poor communication skills.
Like Wavering, Gibson said she received the city’s apology letter despite never receiving an incorrectly-addressed check.
“When it comes to this check debacle, we need to know why we didn’t alert the public immediately when we stopped payment, and how much this mistake is going to cost us,” Gibson told VPM News. “I know this isn’t reflective of the city Mayor Avula believes we can be.”
Ross Catrow, Richmond’s director of strategic communications, told VPM News in an email that City Auditor Riad Ali will review the tax rebate process at the request of the Avula administration and provide “suggestions for moving forward.”
Wavering said he wants to see a culture of change trickle down from the top.
“I think it starts with the mayor creating a culture of there being actual accountability,” Wavering said. “And then people will either move in line with that culture, or they'll move out.”
As for Ruffin, he worries about rebate checks circulating with the council’s name on them.
“I’m just amazed to find out it's that many and that leaves it open for abuse, because if the wrong person gets their hands on it, they could possibly cash those checks,” Ruffin said. “And they might come after us for the money.”
The city said the finance department is in the process of validating the remaining checks. Richmond residents who incurred bank fees due to a bounced rebate check can request reimbursement by calling 311 or using the city’s online portal.
In the meantime, Wavering and Gibson continue to wait for their rebate checks.
