Finally took a good look at the deck on the corner building downtown and wow

I dealt with almost the same thing at a duplex I rented on the east side about six years back. The back deck out there was sitting on two cinder blocks stacked crooked, and one corner had sunk maybe three inches lower than the other. You could feel it when you walked out, the whole thing would give a little. My landlord kept saying he'd get to it, and I heard that for over a year. What actually worked was calling the city's code enforcement office, not the landlord again. A guy came out within two weeks, looked at it for five minutes, took a couple photos, and left a notice taped to the door. Landlord had the post rebuilt on a proper concrete footing within the month. I think he was more annoyed about the fine possibility than anything I'd said in a dozen voicemails.

The funny part is the fix was probably cheaper than he feared. Sistering in a real post and pouring a small footing is a weekend job for any handy person, and the lumber came to less than what he'd spent on his boat payments in a single month, or so his buddy told me while they worked. Since your property manager actually called back, give them a couple weeks to see if anything happens. If the deck still looks like that after that, the code office route worked way better for me than polite voicemails ever did. They usually don't name you as the complainant either, if that matters to you.

I was on the other side of this a few years back when I bought my first house and the back deck turned out to be resting on a couple of buried railroad ties that had rotted almost to nothing. I honestly didn't realize how bad it was until I pulled up the trim boards and could poke a screwdriver straight through the wood. Fixing it ended up being way less of a nightmare than I expected. I dug two footings, poured concrete in those cardboard tube forms from the hardware store, and set a proper 6x6 on a Simpson post base so the wood never touches dirt again. Took a couple weekends working solo and the whole thing ran me a few hundred bucks in lumber and hardware. What surprised me was that the city inspector who came out for the permit said most of the sagging decks he sees are exactly this, one post at the outer edge doing all the work with no real footing under it. He told me the ledger connection matters more than anything, but the posts are what people notice first.

So honestly, good on you for making that call. Property managers ignore tenants all day but a stranger leaving a voicemail about liability tends to light a fire. If the guy actually called back, odds are decent someone shows up with a level and a tape measure before the week is out.

I'd push back on the 'they don't name you as the complainant' bit. When I reported a rotten stair railing at a rental a while back, the inspector straight up told the landlord who called, maybe not on purpose but it came out anyway, and things got weird fast. Maybe some offices are better about it, but I wouldn't count on it if you still live nearby. Also that whole 'weekend job for any handy person' line makes repairs sound easier than they usually are, footings especially depend on the soil and what the local code wants, wich isn't something you eyeball on a Saturday.

somethig that made a difference for me when I was trying to get a crooked deck taken seriously at my old rental: a string line and a cheap line level. I stretched the line along the railing one afternoon and the drop was obvious to anyone who walked past, so I photographed that setup and sent it to the landlord. untill then it was just 'decks settle' and a shrug every time I brought it up. Once there was a dated photo showing the actual sag, he stopped arguing and got someone out. Might be worth doing the same here before the manager's guy 'looks at it,' so you've got proof either way if nothing changes in a couple weeks.

Framing decks for a living, 14 years now, and that spliced post is the part that woud worry me more than the canted deck. A scarf joint in a post is fine in a wall, but under a live load it works loose over time, and that's exactly where these things let go. Since the meter is right there, I'd call the gas utility directly too. They take any obstruction near a meter seriously and will ussually send someone out within days, no property manager needed. The utility guys I've dealt with would red tag that setup just for access issues alone.