Rockingham County, VA - Harrisonburg, Virginia

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We recently had an issue with how our names appeared on our property tax bill. We noticed that my last name was displayed first and did not include a comma to properly distinguish it from the first name shown after it, whereas my wife’s name which was shown next to mine was in the correct order. Due to this inconsistency and since I wanted to make sure my last name wasn’t entered as a first name (since I have also experienced this elsewhere), I reached out to the county’s deputy treasurer (Cynthia) by email to look into the issue. After some back and forth, she tried to persuade me that the reverse order of my name was how it appeared on the deed of record and that I needed to go to the courthouse to have it changed! We were certain this was not the case and were in fact able to confirm this by getting a copy of our deed from the title agency. When I reached out again to let her know that my name was in fact not in reverse order on the deed, she did not apologize for giving me false information. She then doubled down by stating that it was unnecessary to revise how names of co-owners appear in their billing system as it didn’t impact anything. She said that if I wanted to discuss it further, I could do so with one of the real estate associates in her office. When I called and spoke to the real estate associate, she was already fully aware of my concerns and was very unpleasant to speak with. Her argument was that this was “the professional way” of showing both co-owners names on a bill, with the last name first for one spouse (without a comma in between) and the other spouse’s name in the reverse order. It was evident based on my interaction with their office, that they have a very different definition of what “professional” actually means and that they weren’t understanding how this issue can create unnecessary concern for residents.

It is ironic that the mission shown on the Treasurer’s Office website is “to ensure effective collection and investment of all revenue while providing courteous and efficient service to the residents of Rockingham County.” They are obviously not committed to the second half of their mission statement.

Zaidoon A.

Rodney R.

Shawna M.