Mum ‘praying for another home’ so she can escape rats

A SINGLE mother has described finding rodent faeces in her oven after being “overrun” with rats in her council house.

Christina Escott said she had to throw out most of her clothes and some of her children’s toys due to damage caused by the infestation at her ground-floor home in Gelligaer, Hengoed.

The 25-year-old has had to move herself and her children out of their bedrooms and says she has become an “emotional wreck”.

Ms Escott said the scale of the problem only came to light after she heard a rat in her bedroom about three weeks ago.

“I was lying in bed and I heard it,” she said. “It was like a cat or a dog jumping about playing, loud.”

She notified the council which came to sort the problem, but after the visit she kept hearing movement.

On return visits inspectors found a large hole in her bedroom alongside a collection of burrows in her back garden leading into the house.

Ms Escott also found droppings and urine in the drawers where she stores her clothes, as well as behind the bath panel and under her kitchen units.

“It was as if they were nesting in there because the amount of rat poo was absolutely unbelievable,” she said.

“I shouldn’t have to live like this. It is like I have been living with a complete stranger without knowing it. That’s what it feels like.

“Basically I have been eating with rats, bathing with rats and sleeping with rats. That’s what it feels like it was that because they have had access to everything.”

The family were offered emergency accommodation by Caerphilly council, but Ms Escott said she wants to be rehoused because there have been other problems with damp in the house since she moved in five years ago.

Ms Escott said environmental health visited the property on Friday and lay down rat poison.

But she said she has still heard rats in the kitchen and found more evidence of damage in her children’s bedrooms.

“At the moment I am just praying for another property,” she said.

“I can’t afford this. I am a single mother, I’m on income support. I don’t want anyone to come into the property.

“I’m walking around feeling like an unfit mother because I still have my children in here.”

A spokeswoman for Caerphilly council said: “We can confirm that our operatives attended this address on Friday and resolved rat infestation issues at the property by blocking all possible entry points.

“Works are currently ongoing to recement drainage pipes and renew concrete path to the rear of the property; all works will be completed tomorrow.

“An insurance claim form has also been sent to the tenant should she wish to apply for compensation for any damaged items.”