MY DAUGHTER, 3, FOUND A RAT IN KITCHEN DRAWER

Grim discovery as family fights rodent infestation

- By ELLIOT JESSETT

A DAD has described the ‘living nightmare’ of an ongoing rat infestation in his home, which resulted in his three-year-old daughter finding a “huge dead rat covered in blood”.

Marc Moorhead said the grim discovery was made in the family’s kitchen drawer, several weeks after he reported the issue to Livy Housing in December last year.

Marc, from Page Moss, said he was initially told pest control responsibilities lay with the tenant.

But after he produced guidance showing that social housing providers are legally responsible for managing rat infestations, he said Livv Housing (LH) sent out a pest control operative in early January.

The ECHO understands that pest control visited Marc's address and placed various rat control measures, including rodenticide, in tamper-resistant bait stations, and areas most likely to be used by rats. Usual protocol is for the operative to return to the address and evaluate whether those measures have been effective, and initiate a cleanup where necessary.

However, Marc said this didn’t happen, so he wrote a letter of complaint to Livv Housing, seen by the ECHO.