Board Orders Slumlord to Fix Rundown Rental Units : Housing: Ten more of Milton Avol’s homes in Palmdale area face demolition if he fails to make repairs.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday ordered convicted slumlord Dr. Milton Avol to repair 10 of 72 decrepit rental houses he owns in the Palmdale area by April 8, threatening to demolish them if he doesn’t comply.

The county action was the latest in a series of moves aimed at pressuring Avol to clean up the houses he owns in an unincorporated county area surrounded by Palmdale. County officials have cited at least 36 of his 72 houses for violating building codes.

Avol gained notoriety in Los Angeles during the 1980s when he was repeatedly prosecuted for slum conditions at a group of five apartment buildings he owned. In the process, he became the first slumlord in Los Angeles to be sentenced to live in one of his own apartments.

County officials said Tuesday that Avol, a retired Beverly Nills neurosurgeon, had yet to obtain required county permits to repair any of his Antelope Valley houses, despite promising county officials a month ago that he would have made substantial progress on at least two by now.

County officials dispatched a contractor Monday to check those two Avol houses for asbestos as a prelude to possible demolition. The Board of Supervisors has now set “comply or demolish” deadlines for 23 of Avol’s houses, 10 Tuesday and 13 previously.

However, the county in early February also delayed the first two planned demolitions after Avol complained to Supervisor Mike Antonovich that he was being persecuted by county building officials. Antonovich’s staff found Avol’s complaint unwarranted, but still gave him an extra month.

That deadline was up this week. But it was unclear Tuesday how the county plans to proceed on the first two demolitions, since Avol obtained another meeting Tuesday afternoon with an Antonovich aide and other county officials.

None of them could be reached late Tuesday for word on the outcome.

The Board of Supervisors’ vote Tuesday ratified a Feb. 17 decision by the county Rehabilitation Appeals Board setting the April 8 deadline for the 10 houses. By the end of this week, Avol will have already passed the prior comply or demolish deadlines set for the other 13 houses.