The building exteriors all have been condemned in Liberty Square.

Tom Perkins | For AnnArbor.com

An attorney representing multiple Liberty Square property owners has filed a countersuit against Ypsilanti Township alleging, among other things, Fifth and 14th amendment rights violations in the township's effort to declare the townhouse complex a public nuisance.

The township's legal team and nearly 45 defendants met late last month for the initial hearing in what officials expect to be a protracted legal battle over the fate of Liberty Square, which has fallen into disrepair.

Township attorneys are asking Washtenaw County Circuit Court Judge Donald Shelton to order the 151-unit complex demolished.

A cross-suit was also filed by Don Darnell, the attorney representing the property owners and the homeowners association, against Washtenaw County Treasurer Catherine McClary. It alleges that she failed to pay association fees on 63 units her office owned following tax foreclosures in March. McClary's office was unable to sell the properties at several foreclosure auctions, and the township now owns them.

The original suit named the complex’s 45 property owners as defendants, and most were present at the Jan. 26 hearing, Township Attorney Dennis McClain said. At the hearing, Washtenaw County Circuit Judge Donald Shelton granted township officials permission to enter and inspect the complex’s vacant units. Officials estimate that at least 90 percent of the complex is uninhabited.

Shelton also ordered the homeowners association to clean up piles of debris and garbage that are piling up in parts of the complex.

“I think it was a great first step and we have our work cut out for us in terms of moving forward,” said Mike Radzik, director of the township's office of community standards. The two sides were scheduled to meet again for an evidentiary hearing March 17, but that date was delayed by Shelton.

In the countersuit, Darnell argued that an April 23 notice of violation provided by the township to the homeowners’ association did not offer specific enough information to qualify as a violation notice for each homeowner.

Darnell did not return calls from AnnArbor.com.

In the complaint, Darnell wrote that no date of inspection was provided and the notice did not “reference or identify even one address of the 151 individually owned, single-family residences.” It continued that the township copied only 15 sections of its property maintenance code and did not describe any specific problems at any specific address to support its notice of violation.

McClain declined to comment on the countersuit, though he did highlight Liberty Square's complex ownership arrangement, in which he argued that each property is not individually owned. That has been the crux of the township’s argument throughout the dispute.

Joe Koenig is the resident agent of the Grove Park Home Improvement Association. That entity owns 25 of Liberty Square’s townhouses. Koenig’s wife, Glenda Ault, is the owner of Grove Park Homes LLC, which owns 18 units. Koenig is an employee of that company. Grove Park Homes LLC used to own 81 units until the county foreclosed on them early last year.

Ault and Koenig also run JAG Properties, which has been involved in the units' management and is also named a defendant in the suit. Koenig, who has been receiving notification of problems at the complex for several years, is essentially “the person who controlled the complex for many, many years,” McClain said.

But Darnell contends that the township uses the international property maintenance code, and that set of codes requires violation notices be delivered to the person responsible for violations by certified mail, hand delivery or posting.

Because the April 23 notice of violation was delivered only to Koenig, proper notification was not given to the property owners with the exception of the Grove Park Home Improvement Association, Darnell wrote.

The complaint also states that the April 23 violation notice didn’t alert property owners that their units would be condemned if they weren’t brought up to code within 30 days. When the buildings were re-inspected by township officials and found to still have multiple violations in late May, they were condemned.

Darnell said that none of the units is unfit for human occupancy or dangerous to the “life, health, property or safety of the public” as defined by the international property maintenance code.

Darnell also took issue with an Aug. 29 addendum to the April 23 violation notice, which he argues contains only complaints over minor issues related to masonry; peeling paint; the buildings’ siding; fascia; doors; wood trim and windows. That, he said, does not constitute a threat to residents' welfare.

The complaint continues, saying that the township’s actions interfered with the owners’ abilities to use and rent their properties, causing economic damage to them. The township is responsible for those losses, Darnell argued. He also said that the township officials “intentionally and improperly” interfered with the contract and business relationships among the owners, tenants and homeowners’ association.

“Defendants have caused an unconstitutional temporary taking of counter-plaintiff’s property,” Darnell wrote, calling the condemnation fraudulent.

Darnell wrote that his allegations regarding the insufficiencies of the violation notices, the Aug. 29 addendum and the condemnation is “evidence of arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement of the law, thereby violating (counter) plaintiff’s substantive and procedural due process” under the 14th Amendment.

He is seeking monetary relief for the owners. The complaint did not specify the amount.

In the cross-suit filed against McClary, Darnell alleges McClary failed to pay approximately $130,000 in association dues while she owned 63 units from March until January. She came into possession of the units after Koenig and Ault’s Grove Park Homes went through tax foreclosure proceedings.

McClary was not available to comment this week. She is no longer a defendant in the original lawsuit because she doesn't own the properties, but she likely will be named a defendant again if her office forecloses on 34 more units in March, as expected.

McClain said McClary will likely have her own representation, but he said he disagrees with the logic that Washtenaw County taxpayers should be paying association fees to the homeowner’s association — of which Koenig is the resident agent — after Koenig’s wife and business partner, Ault, foreclosed on the homes.

He added that it is "his understanding" that Koenig and Ault didn’t regularly pay their association fees when Ault owned the 63 units.

"I assume that’s going to open a real hornets’ nest by the time the evidence comes out,” McClain said. “It would be a real windfall for them to have county tax payers paying association fees for the 63 units. I don’t believe that is something that should happen or could happen.”

Tom Perkins is a freelance reporter for AnnArbor.com. Reach the news desk at 734-623-2530 or news@annarbor.com. For more Ypsilanti stories, visit our Ypsilanti page.