Property defects and S21/S8

Tenancy Types and Management

I have submitted boith S8 and S21 ntocies to the tenants from hell, but in parallel they have called the local council to notify of several defects that the tenants had never notified me of before.

The council's health &safety officer issued me with a notice citing 6 "hazards", of which I fixed 4 straight away. The other two (defective heating system and the related defective hot water) are in hand, but taking longer than expected. I have kept the H&S officer informed all the way, and she says I am being "reasonable" so far.

The tenants have now contacted the Health and Safety Exectutive, a national body, and their gas officer has issued me with a notice too.

It's a long story (it is harder to have warm air hetaing systems repaired because there are now fewer such systems - everyone is these days installing combi-boilers and radiators), but they still don't have central heating or central hot water. They do have electric heaters (and I offered more of those), electric jug, and plenty of hot water from the power shower.

The thing is that they never notified me of any of the defects before they notified the council, an dthey claim that they couldn't reach me (because they had lost all my contact details).

These "career tenants" haven't paid any rent whatsoever since the beginning of the tenancy in August 2006 (should be £745 pcm). The S8 hearing is next week, and I have also issued an S21 (notice expires 30/04/2007).

My big worry and question is: will these defects cause my case to be thrown out of court next week? What can I do to prevent that?

Many thanks!

Richard