I went down to my local office of the county recorder to file my affidavit of labor on one of my claims. We don't have to do it here until the end of the year. That normally costs $6.00 + 25 cents per claim. I had problems in the past with them not charging me the 25 cents and them getting a nasty letter about a week later. Over the years I usually argued with them for about 20 minutes to get them to call the main office to verify the fee. This year they charged me $11.00 and in the confusion, I forgot to argue about the 25 cents. I wrote a check for $11.00 and went merrily on my way.
1 week later I got all of the paperwork and my check back becuse I was 25 cents short. This cost them 42 cents to mail to me plus another 42 cents when I refiled. That didn't make a lot of sense to me but oh well.
A few weeks later I once again went into the local office to re-file. I gave them the original paperwork, the same $11.00 check and pulled a quarter out of my pocket, talked to a supervisor about why they can't charge me correctly. We went over the fee sheet and it seems that I am the only one in the county that files it at that office. There used to be another guy but he died, and once again I left and went on my merry way.
I received the paperwork back in the mail yesterday. Attached to the paperwork was a letter and a $5.00 bill and the block checked on the letter said:
Refund. The fee for affidavit of labor did not increase in July. The fee is $6.00 per page and 25 cents per mining claim.
Am I missing something here?
Leonard