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Ypsilanti Township is taking legal action against the owners of a vacant, mold-infested home officials found had been soaked with over 88,000 gallons of water.

(Tom Perkins | For The Ann Arbor News)

Ypsilanti Township will ask a Washtenaw County Circuit Court judge for help in cleaning up a home officials say they discovered had been logged with at least 88,000 gallons of water over a two-month period.

Township officials were alerted to the vacant house, at 1188 Borgstrom Ave., in early September by neighbors who reported that it appeared “the back of the home is falling off.”

At its Sept. 16 meeting, the Ypsilanti Township Board of Trustees unanimously approved the township taking legal action against the homeowners.

Mike Radzik, the township's director of the office of community standards, said building inspectors found the home’s back door kicked open and its upper and lower levels “intensely saturated with water.”

Ypsilanti Community Utility Authority officials had previously noticed the usage levels and shut off water service after it continuously flowed during a two-month period between mid-April and June, Radzik said.

The house is built so the first level is partially below ground, and Radzik said it appears the water was leaking from the top floor and draining somewhere into the ground on the first floor. He added neighbors never noticed water leaking out of the home, but the moisture led to a "severe and advanced mold infestation."

“Both floors were saturated to point that the upper level was still dripping down water to the lower level when we went in,” Radzik told the board. “There was advanced mold growth causing a health and safety hazard to immediate neighbors.”

He said it appears property owners, who are husband and wife, lost the house to foreclosure and left most of their belongings in the house. The township has been unable to locate them.

“We’ve been searching and checking different sources,” Radzik said. “The house was inspected, condemned, secured and the certificate of occupancy is revoked.”

He added that the source of the water flow remains a mystery.

“We don’t know if it was a broken pipe or if they intentionally left water running. We couldn’t determine,” Radzik said.

Township records show the home is owned by Ronald and Shirley Blair, who bought it for $100 in a non-market sale in 2005. It has an assessed value of $51,400.