Edinburgh mum says rat invasion forced her to move children out of home

The mum says the rats have been terrorising her family for well over a month.

A mother-of-two in Edinburgh's Wester Hailes area has been forced to moved her family out of their home after a plague of rats started eating their furniture.

Hayley Oswald, 32, has stayed in her flat in Clovenstone for almost five years but says that ever since her block was refurbished there has been a vermin problem.

Hayley Oswald, 32, has stayed in her flat in Clovenstone for almost five years but says that ever since her block was refurbished there has been a vermin problem.

Ms Oswald said the rats had been terrorising her family for well over a month and feels as though her housing agency, Prospect, has not supported her adequately with the pest control issue.

She said: “They have been coming in through the holes in the floors and I think the kitchen floor is needing ripped up as it seems like they are nesting there. My floors and carpet are being eaten and now they have started to eat into my furniture in the living room.

“My son saw one in the kitchen when we were in the house on Saturday and was really upset by it.”

Ms Oswald, along with her ten-year-old son and three-year-old daughter who she has asked the Evening News not to name, have had to stay with her sister, who also lives with her partner and six kids.

Hayley Oswald says the rats have eaten through her furniture.

She said that her daughter’s eczema, and her asthma has flared up with all of the stress of sharing a house between eleven people.

She added that when she contacted Prospect housing, all they could do was offer guidance for keeping the flat clean and to state that she should fill in any holes that she noticed in the property. However, Prospect has disputed this as it states that it is company policy to send around a joiner to deal with any holes through which rats may enter the property.

Prospect does accept that it is unable to arrange for pest control and that it is the tenant’s responsibility to contact someone to deal with the pest problem.

Ms Oswald, said: “I was advised to lay traps and poison but so far none of it has worked. I was quoted £125 that I do not have by a pest control company.