CINCINNATI — Seven condominium owners at the Madison House are seeking a court order to replace the board and management of the Hyde Park property, the latest in a string of attempts by Madison House resident Edgar Ragouzis to force major structural repairs there.
The Nov. 21 lawsuit alleges the Madison House Condominium Association failed to properly maintain the property by allowing condo owners to enclose balconies in ways that caused water damage to the building’s façade. It accuses Towne Properties LLC of breaching its management contract “by allowing the building and garages to fall into extreme disrepair.”
“We’re not concerned,” said Towne Properties principal Neil Bortz. “We don’t think there’s any substance to his allegations and we’ll let the judge decide.”
The WCPO 9 I-Team has covered complaints about the property since 2021, when Ragouzis invited our cameras to document exposed rebar and crumbling concrete in several locations. The complaint names roughly 200 Madison House residents as interested-party defendants, which makes it easier for them to file counterclaims against building managers and each other.
“The deteriorating, crumbling, and falling concrete causes significant concern amongst unit owners,” said the 330-page lawsuit. The building’s “structural integrity may be compromised, the structure may be in an unsafe condition, and is not being maintained as a first-class condominium.”
The Madison House board has not responded to the lawsuit in court filings. In an email to the I-Team, President Joe Faessler said:
“The association will not discuss matters related to pending or threatened litigation with the media. Instead, the association will speak through its filings and arguments in the court proceedings.”
The email directed the I-Team to a 2020 case in which Ragouzis made similar claims about the building’s safety. In a Nov. 22 filing, one day after Ragouzis joined six other residents in the new lawsuit, Madison House refuted Ragouzis’ previous claims in a motion for summary judgment. It said Ragouzis waived his right to sue Madison House when he signed a 2018 settlement agreement over leaks in his 15th floor unit.
“The only support for his claims that the condominium has structural problems is the mere existence of citations issued to the association by the city of Cincinnati,” said the motion. “The director of the city’s Department of Buildings & Inspections, Art Dahlberg, informed Mr. Ragouzis and another owner that the concrete spalling and cracking they reported do not present structural concerns.”
In a letter to condo owners this week, the board announced a 35% hike in association fees and a doubling of reserve funding to $863,490.
The fee hike was partly blamed on increased legal expenses. The board said it budgeted $30,000 for 2022 but will likely spend more than $100,000. It also budgeted $90,000 in legal fees for 2023. And it cautioned Madison House condo owners to expect higher expenses for future repairs.
“The board was already having difficulty finding contractors and professionals willing to do work at Madison House because of the interference by certain owners and the threat of being added to previous lawsuits,” said the board’s 2023 budget letter. “Now that contractors and professionals are actually being sued for simply working at the Madison House, the board will likely have to pay higher costs to contractors and engineers willing to take on the risk of doing work for us.”
Ragouzis declined to comment on the lawsuit but criticized the board for blaming the fee hike on him.
“The 35% increase largely is the result of the hundred percent increase in the reserve fees,” Ragouzis said. “The reserve fees are to be in trust and have nothing to do with the day-to-day operations, including attorney fees.”
Ragouzis said he has faced “a lot of harassment” over his years-long crusade to address water damage at the building but he doesn’t regret pursuing a new round of litigation to force an independent structural assessment of the 19-story tower.
“There’s been too much secrecy here, too much camouflage by the board and the management,” he said. “There hasn’t been fair dealing here with respect to exposure and disclosure.”
Less than half of the building agrees with Ragouzis, said Tom Williams, who moved to Madison House six years ago.
“He’s a troublemaker,” Williams said. “Maybe we need a thorn in the side to keep us at our best.”
Williams has no qualms about the building’s structural integrity and thinks the board is doing a good job in managing the property. But he also thinks the controversy could lead to improvements without costing residents too much.
“Just counting on the lawyers to go ahead and do it justly,” Williams said. “Whatever comes out, I’m going to be living with it.”
Editor's note: This story erroneously reported the Madison House board did not respond to WCPO's request for comment. Its email, received prior to publication, was not read until after publication.
