A Boulder district court judge ruled Friday afternoon that the students who live in the Ash House, a private, off-campus student apartment building on University Hill, are allowed to stay there for the time being.

The ruling bookends a tumultuous week that saw some 60 students kicked out of their homes and left with nowhere to go on Monday night. City officials ordered the Ash House building, 891 12th St., to be vacated immediately on Monday afternoon over safety concerns.

Owners of the Ash House promptly sued the city. In a statement, Ash House’s ownership lambasted the “unprecedented and reckless maneuver” by city officials to “force students from their housing with little notice and total disregard for the property owners’ rights to due process.”

Attorneys for the landlord asked the court for a temporary restraining order to block the city from enforcing its order to vacate. A judge granted that order the day after the students were forced to leave the building. And although attorneys for Boulder sought to have the temporary restraining order blocked, Boulder District Court Judge J. Chris Larson upheld the order on Friday and extended it until Oct. 8.

Boulder officials have argued that the Ash House building violates city building codes. Formerly known as the historic Marpa House, the Ash House was converted into apartments for students about a year ago. But the city ordered the building to be shuttered after discovering that the landlord had done unpermitted construction and other work inside the building.

For example, the building is supposed to have 16 three-bedroom apartments and a total of up to 48 residents, but the landlord reportedly added additional walls and partitions to create four, or even five, bedrooms in some units. New electrical work had been done. City officials said some of the new rooms within the apartments did not have smoke detectors and that the new walls blocked access to fire sprinklers. The added rooms also reduced the shared living space for residents, which created further safety risks.At Friday’s hearing, Luis Toro, an attorney for Boulder, said the city stood by its position that the building is unsafe, that the students should not be living there and that immediately vacating the building was the “only answer.”

Andy Peters, an attorney representing the landlord, conceded that there are building code violations at the Ash House but argued that there was no imminent danger to students that warranted the city forcing them to vacate the building on Monday.

Moreover, the city’s decision to close the building came with little warning. Students and parents have said they were notified on Monday afternoon that all tenants had to leave the building by 6 p.m. the same day. The students were left scrambling to find places to stay for the night, and at least 13 of them were expected to need new permanent housing.

Larson sided with the landlord, saying that while the code violations presented serious safety concerns, the city was not justified in taking the “extraordinary” action of kicking the students out onto the streets with several hours’ notice. Larson said he believed the city’s safety concerns were well-intentioned but that vacating the building so suddenly caused “irreparable harm” to the students.

“The impacts … go beyond just housing. The court takes judicial notice of the fact that these are students who were just starting their semester. It can have impacts on their studies, their grades, as well as their overall sense of well-being,” he said.

Larson also chastised both city officials and the building owners for doing little to help the students who suddenly found themselves without a home. The city gave tenants a phone number for student housing at the University of Colorado Boulder but did not provide shelter or accommodations on Monday night. The landlord also did not immediately accommodate the students but is now offering to pay for students’ hotel room stays.

After the hearing, some family members of students living at Ash House were dissatisfied with how the court hearing played out. They blamed both the city and the landlord for failing to advocate for the students, who they said were stressed and scared by this week’s events.

“It’s really ridiculous the way they’re passing the issues back and forth to one another, the city and building owners’ representatives, and they’re not taking responsibility,” said Maria Salazar, whose 19- and 20-year-old sons live at Ash House. “… We’ve had to drop everything to try to figure out what’s happening and how to help our children.”

Boulder also issued a statement saying the city is “disappointed” with Friday’s court ruling but intends to comply with it.

“At its core, the city’s actions regarding (the) Ash House building violations are about life safety. We believe the current conditions at this building present an immediate life safety risk to the people living there,” the statement read.

“We recognize how difficult this situation has been for the impacted students, but we cannot look the other way when we believe community members could be in danger. As an organization, we are committed to protecting the life safety of these students, and all community members, and holding the property owners accountable. We are exploring all possible options at this point.”

The next hearing for this case will be held at 9 a.m. on Oct. 8 at the Boulder County Combined Court at 1777 Sixth St. in Boulder. The property owner and the city have agreed to spend the next couple of weeks working together to bring the property into compliance with city code.