Gilmore Brown’s Brooklyn home was sold at auction after a $5000 (£3,700) unpaid water bill was handed over to debt collectors – he claims he was unaware of the bill
A man has lost his dream home after an unpaid water bill built up without him knowing it even existed.
Filmore Brown argued that New York City had “failed” him, after working seven days a week for more than 20 years to pay his home and “only dream” off.
He insisted he had no idea about the unpaid bill and would have paid it off “no problem”. Instead, Brown received the shock of his life when strangers attempted to drill his door locks off due to his $800,000 (£600,000) home being foreclosed. Adding to his surprise, Brown learned that the strangers were legally entitled to carry out the lock removal.
Brown bought the Brooklyn home in 1996 and paid off the mortgage. He says he didn’t know anything about the $5,000 (£3,700) unpaid water bill.
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He said: “ I don’t want anybody to go through what I’m going through. I cannot eat, I cannot drink and I cannot sleep.
“I didn’t know,” he continued, referring to the bill. “I would have paid.
“It’s my only dream.”
New York carries out legal action against people who have large unpaid tax or utility bills, selling the debt to a group of investors called a trust.
The trust then takes care of collecting the money, with interest. However, if the debt is left unpaid, the home can go into foreclosure and be sold through auction.
New York City’s Department of Finance claim it sent a number of notices warning Brown of foreclosure, yet Brown says he didn’t receive them.
Brown said: “It [the house] was stolen from me.”
Court documents reveal that investors served someone at his home with papers in November 2020 – during the pandemic. These documents outlined that the trust were initiating foreclosure proceedings.
Brown lives on the top floor of a three-unit home and rents out the lower two units to families.
Brown’s legal team believe his claims. Lawyer Alice Nicholson said: “He said he didn’t know anything about this and I believe him”.
Lawyer Yolande Nicholson pointed out that Brown had “just paid a water bill this year in the thousands of dollars”, adding: “It’s just so heart-wrenching.”
She added that once Brown’s old bill was put into the trust, it didn’t show up on his current bills as the two payment systems aren’t connected.
She said, “There needs to be some type of notification that there is 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.”
ABC 7 reports that 6,800 older people have entered the trust for not paying water bills, and that most of these people live in communities of colour.
A spokesperson from NYC Department of Finance said: “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.
“For this year’s lien sale, we strengthened our outreach efforts to make sure we reached as many owners as possible, working with non-profit groups and other City agencies to conduct door-to-door visits, direct phone calls, and other targeted communications.”
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