Obviously since this family just lost the property they likely cannot fight for the shed even though it sounds like it's theirs. 

That being said, you should probably ask yourself whether these repairs are necessary before you fight them on it.

I suspect every creditor would like to go over the LL for bills that they cannot collect from the tenant, but that is silly and not the LL's responsibility.I recognize that fighting items has a cost, but seriously I question what the utilities argument would be for charging the LL for utilities that they did not use and is not in their name.Good luck

About 10 years ago counties got sick of fighting people over the values and the taxes.

People know this and they give up fighting, it is just something that has gone on for too long and the general feeling is that this unacceptable situation cannot be changed in the short term. 

I hired Bill Wantz who used to be the hearing officer over the kangaroo "court" that hears the appeals of the notices to fight every single one they give me now.

My company focuses primarily on roofing in the storm damage reclamation industry (fighting with insurance companies occupies most of my time actually) but we do whole home restoration and water mitigation so I've got the capabilities or the subs to take care of almost anything. 

If you did have a fire, complete loss because you can bet that the insurance company would fight it because you did not have the "right" coverage.  

My current condo is located in Irvine and spans 1200 sqft.

Well, sort of....I have a long story about a 9 year fight to get a roof fixed that I'll spare you, but it did cost me a $1000 deductible and my insurance company $9000 before they decided we were right, the roof needed to be replaced.