Slumlord Gets More Time to Make Repairs

Los Angeles County building officials said Wednesday they were dropping their threat to immediately begin demolishing two decrepit Antelope Valley houses owned by convicted slumlord Dr. Milton Avol.

Instead, the county will give Avol more time to begin making repairs on the two houses--and several others--that were ordered as long as a year ago.

The county reversal came after a Tuesday meeting between county officials and Avol in Supervisor Mike Antonovich’s downtown Los Angeles office. It was the second time in a month that Avol gained concessions from the county after Antonovich’s office interceded on Avol’s behalf.

“At this particular time, we feel it would be premature to demolish the buildings,” said O. B. Thompson, the county’s building rehabilitation supervisor and one of the meeting participants. “We’re ruling out demolition at this particular time.”

At the meeting, county officials gave Avol another two weeks to begin repairing the two houses and a month to make progress on some others, Thompson said. Rather than push for demolition, county officials are now threatening to board up Avol’s houses, at his expense, unless he begins repairs.

Avol, a retired Beverly Hills neurosurgeon and one of Los Angeles’ most infamous slumlords during the 1980s, owns 72 aging rental houses in an unincorporated county area surrounded by Palmdale. County officials have cited at least 36 houses, many now vacant, for being in violation of building codes.

The two Avol houses that had faced demolition were first cited in December, 1991, and finally ordered repaired or demolished by Dec. 10, 1992. Avol failed to make the repairs and county officials this week prepared to begin tearing down the houses today.

But that plan was dropped during the more than two-hour meeting Tuesday between Thompson, Antonovich planning aide Dave Vannatta, Paul Hanson, a deputy county counsel who provides legal advice to county building officials, and Avol, who had complained to Antonovich.

Thompson and Hanson said the county decided to back down after Hanson warned that Avol could win a lawsuit against the county for inverse condemnation if his houses were demolished. Avol could argue that the county initially should have used less severe methods, Hanson said.

In early February, an Avol complaint to Antonovich’s office led to another meeting among the doctor, Vannatta and Thompson at the houses. The county then gave Avol an extra month--until this week--to begin repairs or face demolition.

Vannatta, Antonovich’s aide, could not be reached for comment Wednesday. In the past, Vannatta has said Antonovich’s staff has been treating Avol just as they would any constituent with a problem. Vannatta also has said they are not considering Avol’s extensive slumlord history in Los Angeles.

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.