Zigner city inspections departments do not need to know who created a condition, they can still send a notice to a landlord ordering a correction and in the case of a multi unit rental they can indeed go after the owner to get compliance when it comes to ANY ordinance that is violated the same way they might with a single family home that is rented EG a city has a ordinance that grass be no longer than 8 inches tenant has a SFH and cant or wont mow the yard so Grass height violates a city ordinance. Who does the city notify first ? its the owner of record and if the owner doesn't take care of it they will fine and can arrange for it to be done by city crews at a spendy rate. Same way with side walks that are not shoveled in the winter. Many cities have done just that for years and years.