Something that is imposible using a buyers agent. 

I can tell you that what @Christopher Phillips says is true, it starts to feel like a very unnecessary cost to maintain it if you're not actively using it. 

From the FHAA Federal Housing Authority:[Landlords are required to accept ESA requests] unless doing so would impose an undue financial and administrative burden or would fundamentally alter the nature of the housing provider's services.

Maybe the city liked that income and therefore didn't impose any worse penalties?

I would also be bound by certain rules imposed by the local real estate board.

For those of you who own properties in HOA's, has anyone had experience with a "lease maintenance fee" imposed by the HOA?  

If she choose to reinvest the money in RE, she would not have the time deadlines imposed by a 1031 exchange.Good luck.

We want the root cause of the problem addressed and the problem fixed for good but we are not sure our property management company can manage this repair and/or stick us with unnecessary costs and/or no guarantee of reoccurence.  

Work at saving money rather than spinning your wheels trying to do th enearly imposible.

I have no idea how many units the person had (I was straight up eavesdropping at a restaurant), but it just sounded like unnecessary work for units that will probably get rented out regardless.