On the other hand the landlord gets a brainless award for not posting ON THE STAIRCASE when it will be unusable ...the fire department-kudos to them

We've had this kind of problem before, and honestly, it seems to just gradually get worse and worse until we can get the tenant out.You can schedule frequent inspections to get inside the house and check the condition and count beds and toothbrushes.You can give your business card to all the neighbors and see if any of them are willing to have a camera to record the house set up temporarily.You can hang back and wait for it to play out.You can stop by the police department and see what they are willing to share and if they have a program where you can copies of all calls to the property.You can send a cease and desist letter stating that if you get any proof of criminal activity or extra occupants there will be no leniency.  

Or your HVAC contractor could install your furnace improperly, it could leak CO gas, and people could die.If you don't care about the lives, then your worst case consequence is that the permit department finds out that you did the work without permits, and they require you to rip open all the walls so they can inspect the work, at which point they potentially find other things that aren't up to code and you end up spending a lot more than if you just would have gotten the work permitted.

STATES have their own securities departments or commissions.  

Employees generally know something about their department.  

It went through the compliance department, etc, and HUD paid the lien, we went on to close without issues. 

To complicate matters, the parish sheriff's department informed me that two of the properties were in city limits & there were also unpaid city taxes.  

Check with your building department or inspector.

I would speak with the planning department at city hall about what kind of residential properties it's zoned for and what setbacks are etc etc.

I do suggest they provide their own however instruct them to leave the building immediately and call the fire department.