Landlord Fined in Slum Housing Case

A Granada Hills landlord has been ordered to pay $14,911 in fines and costs after pleading no contest Thursday to operating 14 North Hollywood apartment complexes in slum conditions, according to the Los Angeles city attorney’s office.

Salomon Wainberg, 68, was sentenced in Los Angeles Municipal Court after pleading to 10 violations of various health and building and safety codes, according to Richard Bobb, the deputy city attorney who prosecuted the case.

The buildings are on Vanowen Street--eight of them between 13100 and 13136 and the other six between 13142 and 13212, according to authorities. The 14 buildings together contain 117 units.

Judge Jacob Adajian also placed Wainberg on three years’ probation and ordered him to repair the buildings between 13100 and 13136 by May 14, and the buildings between 13142 and 13212 by Sept. 4, said Mike Qualls, a spokesman for the city attorney’s office.

The charges against Wainberg grew out of the city’s Slum Housing Task Force inspections executed between May and July 1996.

Code violations included exposed live electrical wires, missing smoke and fire detectors and fire extinguishers, improperly installed water heaters, lack of heat in some units, accumulation of trash and debris, damaged walls, floors, stairs, ceilings, windows, doors, electrical fixtures and cockroach infestations, the investigation revealed.