Had paid other people’s bills without knowing that

In September, Birger Bo Johansen and Gitte Lunding received a message in their e-box, which immediately aroused wonder.

According to the assessment board, the couple now stood as owners of a property in Slagelse Municipality – an address they had never visited and which they certainly had not bought.

This is how it writes TV 2.

« After all, that’s an important thing what you own and don’t own. It’s pretty basic with property conditions and legal certainty, » says Birger Bo Johansen. He himself has been associated with his property on Omø since the 1970s and does not own other properties.

It turned out that an incorrectly registered property number had assigned them the alien address. The couple immediately contacted the National Assessment Agency to get the error fixed. But it should turn out that the formal correction was not quite straightforward.

Were asked to disregard the mistake

Several months later, they were told in writing that the error was recognized, but that the address could not be deleted from the assessment portal.

Instead, they were asked to « disregard it ».

« They say they can see it is a mistake but that we have to disregard it. They can’t remove it, » explains Gitte Lunding

Initially, the assessment board said that the error had not had financial significance. But after the media brought the case forward, the foreign address was removed anyway – and it emerged that the couple had actually been charged property value tax for the property in Slagelse.

For the couple from Omø, the case has left its mark. The confidence that the authorities are in control of property registration and housing tax is weakened.