What everybody else said!!!
I would call it unsafe.
What year was the house built??
Next i would not call out saying it does not meet code, unless you are a license code offical in your state. In order to call out the code you must also know the year the home was built.
You can also ref to the 2006 IEBC if this is a renovation project.
Robert,
House was built in 2006.
By looking at this photo it would look as it is a total of 49" and would requer a guard. Now the building department you asked will tell you this is ok becuase they approved it. So most likley they did not get out of the truck and did a drive by code inspection.
Call it unsafe, guard requied.
I did!!
Any stairs of four risers or more require a guard rail full lenght.