[Vicky.]

And the government want to scrap landlords requirement to make their properties 'liveable'? Or they were the last I heard.

This doesn't shock me one bit. When we were looking to move we had kinda the same thing. landlord had painted over damp and actually had vermin in the property. Unfortunately he had forgotten to remove the rat traps before we got the keys (a week after looking at the place)

Place had looked ok when we inspected it. About 20 mins after getting the keys we had our deposit back and he had his keys and the council had been informed that he was trying to let a place that was ridiculous. I was surprised we didn't have a fight on our hands about the deposit and that tbh but I think he knew not to mess with my partner after he had tried to rent us and our (then) 1 year old a rat/damp infested pile of rubbish