A TRAUMATISED tenant who “battled three rats with a potato masher” before fleeing her rodent-invested home has accused a housing association of neglect.

Teresa Barratt, 52, has lived happily in her Eastlight Community Homes property, in Jennings Close, Colchester, for just over a year.

Last month, however, she was given the shock of her life when she walked into her kitchen to make a coffee, only to be confronted with a gang of scurrying rats.

After trying to defend herself against the long-tailed vermin she rushed upstairs and packed a bag of clothes before sprinting out of the home before 7.30am.

Gazette:

Teresa, who suffers from depression, said: “I whacked one with a potato masher and it went flying – it was a big fat one and it was running towards me.

“I was in a state of terror and I could not go to work because I was in such a mess. In my entire life I have never known anything like this – I am traumatised.”

After reporting the issue, Eastlight Community Homes arranged for a pest control team to visit the home and quell the infestation.

Following the extermination of some of the rats, poison and mousetraps were put in Teresa’s cooker, under her oven and inside her cupboards.

One of the pest control experts then requested the concrete-fixed cooker be taken out, so he could properly address the entrance point being used by the rodents.

Bosses at Eastlight Community Homes, however, are said to have refused and Teresa was told they would not be willing to find her alternative accommodation.

Gazette:

She added: “The pest control man said I should not be staying in this property and ever since since then I have been battling with Eastlight.

“I stayed at my mum’s home for two weeks and then went back home last Friday - I thought I would be OK but I just started shaking.

“I am living in fear and I think I am going to have a nervous breakdown – this is my home but I will never be able to eat out of my cooker again knowing vermin have been in there.

“I think there was about ten rats in there at one point and but Eastlight have said they will not rehouse me. I am very depressed and so stressed and I just want to rehomed but not with Eastlight."

An Eastlight Community Homes spokesman said: "We are very sorry that we have not yet been able to fully resolve our resident’s problem.

"Our contractor first visited this home on November 24t after we had been made aware of the issue, and we have been doing what we can since that time to resolve it.

"Our contractor has re-visited our resident’s home today, and will be returning again on Friday, by which time we hope to have fully eradicated the problem.

"We will, at that point, undertake any repairs to the home that may be required.

"We are continuing to provide support to our resident, and this includes the provision of alternative accommodation until this issue is resolved."