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The city of Richmond says it mistakenly overcharged 2,800 taxpayers, tacking an erroneous $20 delinquent fee to their personal property tax bills.

Officials blamed the error on problems with the antiquated software they use to generate tax bills and said they are manually reviewing taxpayers’ bills to correct the problem.

City spokesman Tom Byrnes said Friday that the letters were “being mailed to each person today to inform them of the error, followed by corrected bills that will arrive well before the due date.”

The payment is listed on bills under a line labeled “delinquent amount.”

Initially Friday, the city estimated the problem had affected 3,400 residents, but said later that the number was lower.

Officials said they are also working with the Department of Motor Vehicles to avoid holds being placed on drivers’ registrations and licenses as a result of the mistake, first reported by WTVR.

Byrnes said the city sends about 179,000 personal property tax bills annually, meaning the issue affected less than 2 percent of taxpayers.