UNITY — A former landowner is charging the town failed to honor an agreement to allow the mortgage holder of several Town Farm Road parcels to take ownership of the land and instead sold the parcels.

Dean Davis, the former mortgage holder of 620-628 Town Farm Road, in June filed a claim with the town alleging officials sold his property despite an agreement that he would pay back taxes and take back possession of the tax-deeded land.

Davis says the town wrongfully and fraudulently took the property, according to the legal filing, and should either return the Town Farm Road parcels to him or pay him the fair market value of $130,800.

Attorney William Lee, who represents Davis, said he’s provided information to Unity’s insurance carrier, the Maine Municipal Association, so it can look into the situation.

“We’re waiting for a response before deciding what to do further,” Lee said.

Emily Newell, chairwoman of the Board of Selectmen, declined to comment, given that it’s a pending legal matter.

Under Maine’s tort law, a claimant has six months after an incident to file notice with a municipality, according to Lee, and that entity then has four months to respond. A lawsuit can be filed within two years of the trigger incident.

The Town Farm Road property became an issue for the town because of repeated code violations and unpaid taxes, according to town records.

Dave Schofield, the town’s deputy code enforcement officer and plumbing inspector, met with the board in June 2014 to discuss a malfunctioning septic system at the Town Farm Road properties, according to meeting minutes, and concluded that the conditions had created an “open cesspool,” which was hazardous to people and animals.

Because the code violations were not addressed and back taxes went unpaid, the town planned to put a lien on the Town Farm Road property.

Each time foreclosure on the property became imminent, Davis paid the back taxes to stop the process, according to the legal notice, but the town filed a lien on the property in June 2013 for back taxes that set a deadline of Dec. 5, 2014, for foreclosure.

Davis says that as the foreclosure date approached, he met with Schofield, who suggested he allow the foreclosure to proceed, then pay the $7,215.52 in back taxes; and the town would return the property to his ownership, ending the foreclosure.

“Mr. Davis saw this as a viable alternative to judicial foreclosure and accepted the town’s offer,” the legal notice stated.

Before the foreclosure, Davis says, he delivered a bank check for $7,215.52 to Schofield at Galusha’s Inc., in Clinton, on Dec. 2, and the code enforcement officer said he would take it to the Town Office.

Schofield declined to comment Thursday on the case.

The town returned the bank check to Davis on Dec. 7. Davis says in the legal notice there was no explanation why the check was returned and he couldn’t get further information from town officials.

The property went into foreclosure on Dec. 5.

Schofield notified the Board of Selectmen that after the foreclosure, the property was condemned because of the septic problem and was vacant, according to the board’s Dec. 16 meeting minutes.

On Jan. 9, the Board of Selectmen held a special town meeting on a purchase and sales agreement with Davis for the Town Farm Road property. Voters rejected the proposed purchase and sales agreement.

The town put the tax-acquired properties out to bid, and on Jan. 20, 2015, it reviewed three submissions for 620-628 Town Farm Road: one from Michael Murch for $20,500, another from Quaker Hill Farms for $20,100 and the last from Davis for $15,215.

The Board of Selectmen accepted the bid from Murch, according to meeting minutes.