Buying house with unpermitted work and code violations

[David L.]

I'm in socal and my parents are looking into buying a home (for themselves). The house has an unpermitted garage conversion, which seems to be fairly prevalent around here. They don't mind and would like to use that conversion. however, they are about to enter escrow and the seller countered with an Addendum stating that the house is sold As-is, they will not make any repairs, garage is unpermitted, and they require the buyer to use a licensed and bonded contractor to make repairs.  

That's fine it seems they want to cover themselves but is there a way to find out if the house has any pending or current violations from the city/county? I understand the title search is part of it but they'd like to get this settled before entering into the contract.  

Also, why would the sellers request that the buyers use a licensed and bonded contractor if they are selling as-is? I'm assuming this is repairs during escrow to appease lending/appraise demands and they are not left with shoddy work if it falls through?