It may not be very wise for a tenant to 'sic' code enforcement on their land lord . . . unless they've already lined up a new place to live. There are a 1,000 ways a landlord of a single family unit can make it unpleasant for the tenant to remain.

There may be ways to fight that in highly regulated markets like California or perhaps Florida. But most of the "Deep South" is much more of a 'laissez faire' business environment. Plus, the landlord is much more likely to know their way around the rules and regs, than the average tenant is.

Bringing inspectors in is always a rather mixed bag: the only certain outcome is that things will slow down!