A Man Lost His Home Due to an Unpaid Water Bill (2 photos)

Brooklyn resident Fillmore Brown, who had been paying off his dream home for over two decades, lost his property due to an unpaid water bill. The man claims he never received notices about the debt and is now trying to get his property back.





Brown bought the house in 1996 and paid off the mortgage in full by 2019. However, it later turned out that he had accumulated a water debt of about $5,000. In 2020, the city transferred the debt to a trust, a special structure that receives unpaid bills for taxes or utilities. The investors who bought the debt demanded repayment with interest. Since the debt was not repaid, the house was put up for auction and sold.

Fillmore Brown says he only learned of the problem when strangers tried to enter his home in the middle of the night. It later turned out that they had a legal right to be in the house.

“This is my only dream. I can’t eat, I can’t sleep, I can’t drink. This was stolen from me,” Brown says.

According to court documents, the notices were served in November 2020, during the height of the coronavirus pandemic. However, Brown says he has not seen any papers. He currently lives in the top floor of the three-unit building, renting out the lower apartments to other families.



The man's lawyers emphasize that his payment discipline has always been high: he regularly paid for taxes and new water bills. According to them, the problem is that the old debt after being transferred to the trust did not appear on current receipts, which means Brown had no way of knowing about the debt.

"There needs to be clearer notice for these cases, otherwise thousands of people could end up in the same situation," said lawyer Yolanda Nicholson.

The New York City Department of Finance said their goal is to prevent home loss. The department noted that since last year, the authorities have strengthened measures to support property owners: they have increased the deadlines for debt repayment, expanded tax incentive programs, and introduced a system of flexible payment plans.