This is not legal advice, but I believe there would be an implied term in any residential tenancy agreement that the premises are habitable. That sort of thing goes to the heart of the contract. Even if they had renovated, the premises are not habitable in their current state, once you had notice of that you should have moved out.
Agree completely with your first point.
And with your second. However, while the council came and visited in April (and the Health and Building Compliance Officer had a conversation), and the lawyer’s building inspector in May – I was not formally privy to the council’s findings until just recently (only got copies of the council notices last week through Freedom of Information Act, after my eviction notice was issued on July 31). Since then, my whole being has been focussed on getting out of here, trust me..
I can’t help shake the feeling that I’m the one being punished here, and not them 