Allison lingered over Houston for several days and dumped over 30 inches of rain in some parts.

I have a feeling the tenants will blame the 'flooding' we had, though an add-on room in the back of the house that is about 4 inches lower didn't get any water.

No response for several weeks & another 12-18 inches of snow fell.

We’re also located in San Diego and have been inching our way into the real estate world. 

Give them an inch and they'll take a mile.

You can always go look at the deck yourself and see if it's anything obvious like no railing (if over 30 inches from grade) or bad framing and such.

(1) The owner, agent and tenants of any building or premises shall clear a path of not less than [30]36 inches in width on all sidewalks abutting the building or premises within 6 hours after the snow has ceased to fall.

If it sink in a couple inches, there will be problems down the road.

I have crawled every inch of the house including crawl space and attic.  

In fact the 1913 duplex was inspected by a foundation company, and they were shocked how good it was, only settled less than quarter of an inch on one side.