I think I would start by contacting Environmental health, ask them what notices were served on the property and how they affected the landlords ability to charge rent.
Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery. The blossom is blighted, the leaf is withered, the god of day goes down upon the dreary scene, and—and in short you are for ever floored.
Wilkins Micawber, Ch12 David Copperfield
