Jail Sought for Slumlord Who Failed to Fix House

A Los Angeles city prosecutor said Friday that he will ask a judge to send a convicted slumlord to jail for two years for failing to make repairs to a dilapidated house in a crime-plagued section of Van Nuys.

William Buzin, 72, was picked up Thursday at his Carpinteria home and charged with violating his probation by failing to fix floors and the roof of a house in the 14700 block of Blythe Street.

Deputy City Atty. Donald Cocek said the house, which appears to be vacant, is in “terrible condition and unfit for habitation.”

After a brief hearing Friday in Van Nuys Municipal Court, Judge Alan Ellis granted a motion by Lewis Notrica, Buzin’s lawyer, to postpone the probation violation hearing until Monday.

Buzin was returned to jail in lieu of $38,000 bail. Notrica declined to discuss the case.

In 1991, Buzin was convicted of several building-code violations at the house, which is located in an area plagued by gangs and drug dealing and is considered one of the worst neighborhoods in the city.

Cocek said the house, which Buzin has owned since 1980, was being rented out despite fire damage and other problems.

According to court records, Buzin also was convicted last year of misdemeanor assault with a deadly weapon for pointing a rifle at a tenant on Blythe Street.

In 1989, he was convicted of building-code violations for renting out a dilapidated house on Arleta Street in Van Nuys, Cocek said.

The prosecutor said that Buzin fixed up that house as ordered by a court and then sold it.

Cocek said records indicate that Buzin never sought to repair the Blythe Street house and has completed only 12 of the 500 hours of community service ordered as a result of his three convictions.