"Scumlord"

[king1]

so how do we feel about the landlord in question who doesn't seem to be behaving with honesty and integrity?

My whole point is that we don't know how he is behaving. Stuff doesn't present a balanced view and I gave an example of how the "story" presented might have panned out in reality. He might be a bad landlord. Or he might be someone who is working through what he needs to do on the houses and leaving the sitting tenants on cheap rent in the houses that haven't been brought up to standard. If he was flagrantly ignoring the legal requirements he would have had a lot more fines than the few that are quoted. Like I said above, the insulation needs to have been completed by now, but most of the rest of the stuff can stay as is until next July unless the tenant changes. So he can work on one house at a time as the tenants turn over, and the sitting tenants can benefit from cheap rent in the meantime.

The two months without consistent hot water is somewhat suggestive...