A vacant Kansas University fraternity house needs roughly $850,000 in mold remediation and mechanical repairs, according to a lawsuit filed in Douglas County District Court.

The subject of the suit is the Lambda Chi Alpha house at 1510 Sigma Nu Place, which the fraternity began leasing in 2000 from Alpha Omicron Pi, a Tennessee-based sorority no longer active at KU. The lawsuit, filed earlier this month, alleges the sorority violated the contract by not properly maintaining the house.

The fraternity wants to exercise an option to buy the house, then demolish it and build a new one on the site, but the suit alleges the sorority kept the sale from happening by failing to get an appraisal required by the contract.

“We were forced into the situation, and when you don’t have any recourse, then you have to file suit in order to get the other party to comply,” said fraternity alumnus Bruce Wanamaker of Overland Park, treasurer of the corporation that oversees the house.

Fraternity members moved out of the house at the end of last year, Wanamaker said. This year, they’re living together at an off-campus apartment building.

The main priority for the fraternity is to get the sale of the house under way so work on the site can begin, said Chris Burger, Lambda Chi Alpha’s attorney. The suit asks a judge to require the sorority to sell the house for the amount of the fraternity’s appraisal or to force the sorority to get its own appraisal, as required by the lease.

The fraternity also wants its deposit back and enough money to fix the house’s problems.

Officials at Alpha Omicron Pi headquarters in Brentwood, Tenn. referred questions to their attorney, who could not be reached for comment last week.

¢Lambda Chi Alpha¢Pictures of 1510 Sigma Nu Pl.