Brooklyn Black Man Says He Lost Home Over Hidden Water Bill

A Brooklyn man was devastated after learning that his dream home had been sold without his knowledge due to an unpaid bill he had never been aware of.

According to ABC 7, Filmore Brown’s Brooklyn home was sold out from underneath him due to an unpaid water bill of $5,000. Brown learned of the sale after strangers tried to gain access to his home in the middle of the night. He was shocked to find out the strangers had a legal claim to the property.

“I didn’t know, I just would’ve paid it,” Brown told ABC 7.

The 66-year-old bought his home in 1996 and spent the next 23 years working to pay off the mortgage, which he successfully did in 2019.

The city can take action against homeowners who have large unpaid tax or water bills. Those bills are then sold to a trust or group of investors, who then look to collect the money with interest. If those debts aren’t paid, the home can go into foreclosure and be sold at auction, according to ABC 7.

But Brown says he never received any warnings or notices about the pending lien and if he had known about the bills, he would have paid them.

“I would’ve paid it, no problem,” Brown said. “I don’t want anybody to go through what I’m going through,” said Brown. “I cannot eat, I cannot drink, and I cannot sleep.”

Unfortunately, the city of New York says it did notify Brown of the unpaid bills.

From ABC 7:

New York City’s Department of Finance said it sent numerous notices, warning Brown of a pending lien.

Brown says he didn’t receive them.

Court documents show the investors served someone at his home with papers in November of 2020 during the height of the pandemic. The documents announced that they were initiating foreclosure proceedings.

Mr. Brown claims he didn’t get the notice. He lives on the top floor of a three-unit home and rents out the lower two units to other families.

Brown’s attorneys said he has paid thousands of dollars in bills since the debt went into a trust and it didn’t show up on his current bill because the two payment systems are separate from one another.

“He just paid a water bill this year in the thousands of dollars, so it’s just heart-wrenching,” 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.”

Sadly, this happens more often than it should.

According to the ABC data team, more than 6,800 have been put into the trust for not paying water bills, and the majority live in communities of color.

Black Man Files Lawsuit Accusing NY Cop Of Harassing, Arresting Him For Honking Horn At Green Light

SEE ALSO

Brooklyn Black Man Says He Lost Home Over Hidden Water Bill was originally published on newsone.com