Slumlord Accused in Palmdale : Housing: Milton Avol, convicted in Los Angeles, is cited by the county for conditions at 32 rented houses in the Antelope Valley.

A convicted slumlord who was the first in Los Angeles to be sentenced to live in one of his own run-down buildings is facing a new round of accusations that a neighborhood he owns in the Antelope Valley is riddled with slum-like conditions.

Los Angeles County health officials say that since November, they have cited Milton Avol, a 68-year-old Beverly Hills neurosurgeon, for violations involving unsanitary living conditions in at least 32 of the 72 houses he owns in a small, unincorporated area surrounded by Palmdale.

After health inspectors surveyed the area Thursday and found continuing evidence of sewage problems, roach and rodent infestation, and broken windows, they said Avol could face criminal charges if he does not clean up the area.

“We’re not going to let this drop,” said Sam Bellomo, the county Department of Health Services’ top environmental health official in the north county. “If compliance is not obtained, the matter will be referred to the district attorney.”

Avol’s problems pose a high-profile challenge to county prosecutors and enforcement officials, who some feel are not vigorous in their pursuit of slumlords. “Apparently, there’s no training for them in these cases, so they’re struggling with it out there,” said Los Angeles Deputy City Atty. Stephanie Sautner, the city’s top slumlord prosecutor, referring to the county’s attorneys.

Some tenants, meanwhile, have begun talking with an attorney about a civil lawsuit against Avol. Residents, many on welfare, complain that Avol and his managers have repeatedly promised to repair the houses but have done little work.

“He’s doing exactly the same thing here as in L. A. He hasn’t learned,” said Glenda Heiserman, the Lancaster attorney representing several of the tenants.

Avol served two widely publicized jail sentences in 1987 and 1988 for slumlord convictions in Los Angeles, capping a decade-long campaign against him by city officials. In the process, authorities said he also was the first in the city and may have been the first in the nation to be sentenced to live in one of his own buildings. The sentence was handed down in 1985 and he served it two years later.

Avol eventually sold his five Los Angeles apartment buildings, with about 300 units. The Palmdale-area houses were built in the 1950s and bought by Avol in 1964, records show. The Palmdale buildings were never a part of his earlier legal problems.

In a telephone interview Thursday, Avol insisted that he has been trying to maintain the buildings, which are 800-square-foot, two-bedroom houses that rent for up to $500 a month. And health officials said he promised Friday to correct some of the more severe problems by early this week.

“I fully intend to keep the place up as much as possible,” Avol said Thursday. But he said a woman who had been the manager there for many years died several years ago.

“Everything was kept up” under the former manager’s care, he said. “Things weren’t let go from the point of view of maintenance until the past year.”

Avol said tenants facing eviction have damaged the houses. He also faulted two couples who had been his managers in the past year until they were charged with stealing thousands of dollars in rent money. A warrant has been issued for the arrest of one couple, and the other pair--John Cole, 22, and his wife, Irene, 25--were sentenced this month to jail terms of one year and 30 days, respectively.

Bellomo said he would not blame the tenants. But he also said Avol and his current manager have managed to remedy at least some of the violations, although some only technically because tenants have moved out. County officials have also inspected about half of Avol’s houses.

Bellomo said the department has issued four notices of violations covering 32 houses. The alleged violations include faulty septic tank systems, accumulated trash and debris, illegal garage conversions, and dangerous electrical wiring, he said. They are administrative charges that require the conditions to be remedied or else the case can be sent to the district attorney for criminal prosecution.

Los Angeles officials who prosecuted Avol said he has a track record of promising but failing to make repairs even when threatened with jail. “I think he was a guy who’s never going to get the message of what code enforcement meant,” Sautner said.

Sautner, who had dubbed Avol “the most recalcitrant slumlord in Los Angeles,” now heads a multi-agency task force of city attorneys, county health inspectors and others who focus on slumlords. It was created by the city in 1980 partly as a result of one of Avol’s several convictions.

But it operates only inside Los Angeles. Elsewhere, such tasks fall to county inspectors and prosecuting attorneys who rarely have handled major slumlord cases. And Sautner said that’s not because the county has no problems.

Avol’s Palmdale-area houses cover about a six-block area between the Antelope Valley Freeway and the city’s downtown. Bellomo and Tim Grover, the county inspector responsible for building code violations in the region, said there are no records of inspections or violations at the houses before 1991.

A visit to the houses revealed underground septic tanks that have overflowed, sending raw sewage into residents’ back yards, and strings of wiring along the outside walls of houses. In one house, a main water line runs along an interior bedroom wall.

Trash and weeds are piled up, and at least 15 houses are vacant and boarded up. In many places, broken glass is often scattered on the ground nearby. Avol said the houses are empty because he’s trying to be more selective in choosing his tenants; several tenants said he’s trying to shun people on welfare.

While touring the neighborhood Thursday, Bellomo asked residents why they had not contacted authorities earlier. County officials acknowledged that they do not go out looking for slumlord violations. Only if tenants or others complain, county officials say, will they investigate.

Heiserman said tenants are often too busy, unfamiliar with government or fearful of being evicted to report problems. Grover, who has written about 10 building code violation notices against Avol, said tenants face a Catch-22 situation. For major repairs to be performed, the building often must be vacated.

Various residents of Avol’s houses said their homes are infested with mice, cockroaches and other vermin. Some complained of skin sores that they believe are caused by mites. Others told of gas heaters so filthy that they give off little heat but emit fumes that make residents ill.

And several tenants said that when they moved in last year they found piles of trash, missing light and plumbing fixtures, and broken and boarded windows. Tenants said the managers promised them money back for doing repairs, but never paid.

“This house was so filthy I was scared to bring my kids,” said Deborah Talley-Liggins, 39, a school bus driver and mother of five. For most of the time since she moved in in March, more than half of her house has had no electricity, forcing the family to use a maze of extension cords, she said.

Talley-Liggins said she repaired walls, paid to have the house’s cooling system fixed and even put up wallpaper to cover holes in the walls. But she said she stopped paying rent last fall after Avol would not return her $200 security deposit or reimburse her for the work, as she said the managers had promised.

Avol said he had “no way of verifying” any commitments made to her or others by the managers.

The house had so many mice, Talley-Liggins said, that the family got a cat even though she and several of her children are allergic to it. Avol has evicted the family and they are due to be out within a week, still owing nearly $3,000 in rent.

In a nearby house, David and Kathy Chase said they found similar conditions when they moved in in May as newlyweds. They said they were attracted by the reasonable rent, even though living there meant having to do many of the repairs themselves.

But David Chase, 25, said Avol’s managers never provided the materials they had promised. The couple and their now 14-month-old son went months with broken windows and said they could take showers only every other day to keep their septic tank, a type of back-yard sewer, from overflowing.

Kathy Chase, 27, said that sores have covered her lower legs for months and that a doctor at a county hospital diagnosed them as mite bites. David Chase said his wife sometimes cries at night. “It’s very painful. Sometimes it itches, and it bleeds all the time,” she said.

“I can’t be responsible if they have fleas on their dogs,” Avol said.

Avol also tried to evict the Chases, who have been organizing the other tenants, but suffered a setback Friday. Antelope Municipal Judge Frank Jackson rejected the request, ruling that their house was “partially uninhabitable.”

David Chase, who had not been paying rent because of the disputes, said he wasn’t sure whether the ruling was a victory. While pleased at not being evicted for now, Chase said what he really wants is to get his $500 security deposit back from Avol so that the family can move elsewhere.

Milton Avol’s Troubles

August, 1979: Already on probation from a 1978 slumlord case, Avol is fined $3,000 after being convicted of fire safety violations at three of his Los Angeles apartment buildings. As a result of this case, the city in 1980 creates a slumlord task force.

December, 1983: Avol is found guilty of public health violations involving another Los Angeles apartment building, is fined and placed on three years probation.

June, 1985: Avol is sentenced to 30 days in jail and 30 days house arrest in one of his five blighted apartment buildings for slumlord violations. The latter penalty is hailed as the first of its kind in the nation.

August, 1985: Avol is sued by hundreds of past and present tenants alleging slum conditions at several of his buildings.

July, 1986: Avol, still free while appealing his 1985 jail sentence, is sentenced to nine more months in jail for violating probation by failing to correct problems at three buildings.

April, 1987: A state appeals court upholds Avol’s 1985 sentence. He shortly thereafter serves 15 days of the 30-day jail sentence and all of his 30-day house arrest sentence. He later serves about 55 days of the nine-month sentence handed down in July, 1986.

August, 1988: Tenants who sued in 1985 reach a $2.5-million out-of-court settlement with Avol and a subsequent owner, described by attorneys then as the largest slumlord civil settlement in California.