My thinking is that if I remove them completely it might bring back a little more curb appeal to the property and make it more inviting to potential renters. 

In states that define dual agency ad the broker being the dual agent (not the actual agent) it's going to happen constantly at the medium and larger size firms.

You must have done everything reasonable, even unreasonable, to cure the issue and document it.I lost $200.00 once in court because a tenant removed the range and would not let us reinstall it.

Quote from @Stuart Udis: I suspect they drew you a flow cart and then your conversations went something like this:Please kindly remove your bugs from my office

You need to remove this tenant.

Unless you choose to remove the husband from the lease, they both remain leaseholders even if he is not living there.

This is a completely self-managed operation (we don't use property management firm). 

So I shorten my reply, remove some triggering words and my reply goes through. 

Typically in my experience at a large real estate development firm, we worked with local attorneys on the appeal process every year.

The owner agrees to pay the violations but I'm responsible to do the necessary post work which is to either remove the garages completely or bring them up to code.