A homeowner who had paid off his entire mortgage awoke in the middle of the night to discover his home was being repossessed over an unpaid water bill that he says he didn’t even know about.
Filmore Brown was informed his home in Brooklyn, New York, had been foreclosed without his knowledge due to an unpaid water bill for around $5,000, he told local news station ABC 7. He has been paying water bills regularly, but says the statements made no mention of an outstanding amount for an old bill.
Officials say notices were sent and that court documents were served to someone at the property in November 2020, but Brown says he didn’t receive them. He lives on the top floor of the three-unit building and rents out the lower apartments to other families.
He now has a legal team in place as he fights to keep his home.
Newsweek reached out to the New York City Department of Finance, which sold the debt to the investors who foreclosed on Brown, via email for comment.
Why It Matters
It was New York City itself that sold on Brown’s debt to a trust, a group of investors, who can then seek to recover the money, plus interest, themselves through methods such as home foreclosure.
The water bill was worth less than 1 percent of the value of Brown’s home, but the trust was able to foreclose on his $800,000 house to settle the debt. He says the first he knew about it was when contractors arrived late at night and began drilling through the front door’s locks to gain access.
Brown’s situation may have happened before and could potentially happen again to other homeowners.
What To Know
Brown bought his home in 1996 and says he worked 7 days per week to pay off his mortgage by 2019.
He says he didn’t know there was an unpaid water bill for $5,057.71, apparently dating back to at least 2019, and he never received notices about it. Nor was he aware of papers being served to someone at the property in November 2020, he said, meaning that he never saw legal documents announcing that the trust was initiating foreclosure proceedings that would see the house put up for sale at auction.
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What People Are Saying
Filmore Brown told ABC 7: “I don’t want anybody to go through what I’m going through. It’s more than I can bear…I cannot eat, I cannot drink, and I cannot sleep.”
When asked about the unpaid water bill, he replied: “I didn’t know; I just would’ve paid it,” and added that he feels his home has been “stolen from me and I need it back.”
One of Brown’s attorneys, Alice Nicholson, told ABC 7: “He said he didn’t know anything about this and I believe him.”
Brown’s other attorney, Yolande Nicholson, told ABC 7: “There needs to be some type of notification that there’s another bill out there that needs to be paid. There needs to be more done to make sure that these hardworking older people who paid off their mortgage and have fixed incomes don’t get into that kind of rut.”
A spokesperson for the New York City Department of Finance told ABC 7: “Our goal is never to see a homeowner lose their property. Last year we implemented reforms to specifically prevent unfortunate situations like this from happening, by giving property owners more time, information, and resources to resolve their debts.”
This year, the agency also “strengthened our outreach efforts to make sure we reached as many owners as possible […with] door-to-door visits, direct phone calls, and other targeted communications,” the spokesperson added.
What Happens Next
Brown and his attorneys are continuing to fight to save his home. After the story broke on Friday, the weekend saw an impromptu rally held outside Brown’s home, with several high-profile attendees campaigning for change on Saturday.
Brown’s situation was described as “a profound injustice” by NYC Councilmember Chris Banks, while Assemblymember Monique Chandler-Waterman said it was a “crisis” that needed to be resolved swiftly, ABC 7 reported.
The lawmakers called for an official investigation into Brown’s case.
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