Do It Yourself

So this place was made into a duplex and they forced a hot water heater into a small closet. Maybe I'm not understanding properly but why is there not a hot water Shutoff valve there? The hot water wasn't shutting fully off on the tub, so the valve stem likely just needs to be replaced, not hard.. quick cheap replacement usually... But when I went to shut off the hot water I found this.

Side note, I also found their was no exhaust vent for the dryer a couple years ago, we had to have someone cut a whole where the exhaust was ran, but just sat up against the exterior wall with no outlet. (Obviously a fire hazard). Shit happens, but am I wrong that a shut off valve should be there?