The Anne Arundel County Health Department's case against a Severn landlord accused of ignoring more than 1,000 health-code violations on one of the county's most dangerous streets got off to a slow start yesterday, frustrating residents who had hoped the court would order immediate repairs.

After nearly three hours of testimony, landlord Mohammad Zuberi and Assistant County Attorney Howard P. Nicholson still were arguing over the four-page list of repairs at one property - 1800 Arwell Court. More than 80 pages of alleged violations remained - several for each of the 30 properties Zuberi owns on Arwell Court.

Judge Vincent A. Mulieri continued the hearing until Thursday, when the lawyers will resume plowing through the list.

The problems range from rotting wood and peeling paint to rodent infestations, windows that don't open and broken heaters.

After mediation efforts failed in the summer, the judge told the parties he would hold a hearing to negotiate every item on the list if they couldn't settle the matter - process that could take weeks.

Yesterday, Nicholson predicted the case would move more quickly, because many of the problems at 1800 Arwell Court mirror others on the list and the parties could agree that the judge's rulings on matters such as paint and wood apply to the entire list.

Zuberi, who filed for bankruptcy protection in 1998, owns about 70 properties, most of them in the Pioneer City community. He declined to comment, but his bankruptcy lawyer, Richard Rosenblatt, said Zuberi is working out a contract to sell the Arwell Court properties because he can't afford to make the repairs.

Rosenblatt said 21 units are vacant, and eviction proceedings have started in most of the others.

Yesterday's discussion of whether certain kinds of wood were decay-resistant and the exact meaning of "good repair" infuriated Zuberi's tenants and neighbors, several of whom have shown up at court appearances throughout the summer.

"We shouldn't have to live like that. It's just not right," said Virginia Harris, who rents a townhouse on Pioneer Drive from Zuberi. Harris hoped to show the judge photographs of her home. Her plumbing is rusted, her floor is missing tiles and her bathroom sink doesn't work.

Harris said she pays Zuberi $700 a month in cash and has been waiting for him to fix the problems since June, when she moved in with her daughter, granddaughter and an ill man she cares for.

In June, the Health Department sued Zuberi, charging health-code violations at every property he owned on Arwell Court. Zuberi signed a consent order to repair the properties last summer but made few repairs, arguing that most of the items on the list were cosmetic.

Rosenblatt, who hasn't represented Zuberi on most of the Health Department matters, said he came to court yesterday because he thought Zuberi was being singled out.

"The public is only hearing one side of the story," Rosenblatt said. "He's had significant problems with people paying rent."

Zuberi made many of those arguments yesterday, blaming Arwell Court residents for the conditions and claiming the only tenants he can get are the ones no one else can take.

"That offends my social senses. It's just offensive," Nicholson said after the hearing.

Community activist Yvonne Galloway, who has rented from Zuberi for nearly 20 years, called yesterday's hearing a "stall tactic" and said she was losing faith the court would ever force Zuberi to take care of his properties.

"The rest of us need to see due process," she said. "People are living in conditions that should be condemned."