Fellow fireman here and hoping my experience with code enforcement helps. As many awesome people have explained here unless occupied directly by the owner it falls under public housing code / multi unit property code. More than likely what happened was the house was given it’s certification of occupancy prior to the person renting it out; so as some have mentioned here it got “grandfathered in.”

Here’s a couple of things you can do. If you don’t feel safe completely unplug the items from the outlet in question and document EVERYTHING (I’ve personally been in situations where I practically had to slap the landlord with proof it was failing before they did anything). This also helps with OTA proof too.

Secondly the fireman in me says call the NON EMERGENCY fire department line for code enforcement. Have them come check it out and they will explain everything to as to what has to be corrected and or fixed.

Plain and simple to me; and to the rest of you reading my comment. Don’t ever play games with electrical. What typically happens is it gets ignored and begins to catch fire behind the walls and through your attic and or basements (wherever the primary electrical box is CHECK THAT TOO for blown breakers) as the issue has now developed PAST the electrical receptacle. A couple of days later of ignorance and your house burns down due to our negligence. Yes I’ve seen it myself multiple times and have heard the stories from the home owners themselves (thinking it wasn’t anything major, till they had smoke pouring out the socket itself).

Anyways yes get it checked out, yes your correct in your original thought, and if anything don’t wait to have it checked out. Worse case scenario you annoy the firemen and women for coming to check out a electrical outlet, and your mind gets put at ease.