Man Nearly Loses Home Over $324.57 Bill

For three months, a 78-year-old piano teacher lived with the fact that he had lost his home of 25 years because he failed to make his final mortgage payment of $324.57.

Edward J. Brown had neglected to make the payment--and then ignored several bank notices that he left unopened--because he believed carrying a small mortgage would prevent him from being sued if anyone were injured on his property.

After the bank sent a final eviction letter, the three-bedroom ranch that Brown lived in on Algonquin Drive in this seaside community about 50 miles south of Boston was sold at auction in April for $60,000--nearly $30,000 less than it had been appraised for.

Attorney Donna Sowa said Brown did not understand the gravity of an unpaid mortgage bill.

Sowa, who represented Brown in his effort to regain his home, also said it is a common fallacy among older property owners that keeping a mortgage can protect a homeowner from liability.

Brown got his house back recently after Citizens Bank said the eviction was an oversight. The bank’s mortgage company, it said, should have contacted the bank sooner to let it know there was a problem.

“We were responsible for the circumstances,” said Arlene Fortunato, a spokeswoman for Citizens Bank. “We followed all the legally correct procedures, but we routinely forgive payments of that amount and higher.”

Fortunato said the bank tried to reach Brown through phone calls and letters from February 1998 until the auction three months later. It made at least one visit to Brown’s home, she said.

But Brown said he was never told that his ownership of the 1,131-square-foot bungalow he built in 1973 was endangered or that a public auction was to be held on his own front lawn.

“If they had come over and told me I had to pay, I would have done it,” said Brown. “I’m always around.”

He said he reasoned that, after 25 years of mortgage payments, how could $324.57 be such a big deal?

To return the home to Brown, Citizens decided to purchase it back from Arnold Nadeau on July 21 for a little more than he paid at the auction, Fortunato said. The bank also paid some back taxes for Brown.

Sowa said it was a relief that Brown got his house back. “It was a real happy ending,” she said Aug. 5.

Brown, a former professional pianist, once studied with one of Leonard Bernstein’s teachers, Heinrich Gebhard. After retiring from the music world in the 1960s, he worked as a purchasing agent for a local electronics firm for several years.

Never married, Brown lives on Social Security and teaches piano to a few students each week. He loves to read, play the piano and meet friends for coffee every morning.

Now he can continue to do all that, living in his own home.