BREWER, Maine — This week’s court date to finalize the city’s foreclosure on a notorious house in Brewer where police were called more than 150 times over the past two years, was postponed by the city, Brewer City Solicitor Joel Dearborn said Friday.
“The parties are negotiating, and my understanding is we’re close to a settlement,” Dearborn said.
Candice White stopped paying property taxes on her home at 91 Longmeadow Drive in 2013, which led city officials to begin the foreclosure process after repeated warnings. The house is valued at more than $230,000. White blamed hardships and health problems for leading to her unpaid bills. At the end of July, she owed $17,298 in property taxes.
White believes city officials “hate her” and want to take her home because police have been to the residence 155 times since 2014 for a variety of complaints from neighbors.
A final hearing on damages in the City of Brewer vs. White court case had been scheduled for this week at the Penobscot Judicial Center.
Dearborn had said previously that during the hearing, the court would determine whether the city had “followed all the statutory steps to take the property.”
Dearborn also said last month that the city hired Bangor attorney Charlie Gilbert as an outside consultant to work with White’s attorney in an attempt to come to a resolution that possibly could provide White with a portion of the revenue, once the house is possessed and sold by the city.
On Friday, Dearborn said the city was granted more time by the court to continue negotiations with White. No new court date has been scheduled.
The city solicitor said he could not release any details about the amounts being discussed in the negotiations, but said under the current proposed terms, “she will see some of the proceeds” in exchange for a deed in lieu of foreclosure. If that happens, the court case also would be dismissed, he said.
After White failed to pay her 2013 property taxes, the city filed a tax collector’s lien on June 17, 2014, with the Penobscot County Registry of Deeds. As the statutory 18-month deadline to pay her taxes or lose her home neared, Brewer officials sent White a certified letter — which she signed for on Nov. 16, 2015 — telling her she must pay her taxes or be subject to an automatic foreclosure of the property.
The 2013 taxes were not paid, and the lien matured.
“There is nothing she can do to get it back,” Dearborn said in August.
Since then, White’s 2014, 2015 and first 2016 tax payments have not been paid and additional liens have been filed.