Household stay in rat-infested dwelling for 16 YEARS as rodents run wild

A FAMILY of six detailed their nightmare ordeal after revealing that they lived in a rat infested house for 16 YEARS.

Darren Langaberr, along with his wife and four children, has now decided to speak out after the recent rodent-related incident left their home in Llanelli, Wales without power.

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The family found a decomposed rat skeleton in an attackPhoto credit: Darren Langgabeer / Media Wales

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It is only one of 58 rats removed from the property in Llanelli, WalesPhoto credit: Darren Langgabeer / Media Wales

Darren revealed that the living nightmare began when the family first noticed rats eating up all of the food in their kitchen.

Soon they were all kept awake at night by the sound of rats gnawing on the floor and scurrying behind walls.

And more recently, the family discovered rat droppings in their attack – next to the decomposed skeleton of a rat.

Darren and his wife, who works for the NHS, have since sought help from Carmarthenshire Council and other local authorities.

But despite moving out of the property three times to enable complete destruction, the rat infestation has still not been resolved.

He told Wales Online: “They baited people and we had to move out because they killed rats before and they went under the floorboards and the stench, to be honest, is absolutely terrible.

“The council doesn’t seem to care because they don’t live here.”

The couple’s son has since moved out because the rats chew day and night and run through the floorboards.

“It was a nightmare”

Their 14-year-old, 15-year-old and 13-month-old daughters, who still live on the property, remain “afraid” of the rodent infestation.

Darren said, “It sounds like cats are in the attic with the noise they’re making.”

“They get scared because they think people are in the house, because they can hear the rats in the attic.

“We can’t sleep, the girls are convinced the rats are under the beds and the girls are afraid, but it has become second nature to them to hear the terrible creatures running around the house.”

In particular, he added that he and his wife were forced to sanitize the floor several times to prevent their young daughter from crawling among the excrement.

“If you want to go to the attic, a large amount of rat droppings fall on the floor and I have a child here,” he said.

The recent rodent-related incident resulted in the family running out of electricity upstairs after the rats chewed through cables in the attic.

The family is now forced to use their phone lamps to move around the house.

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The couple need to sanitize the house to combat rat droppings in the atticPhoto credit: Darren Langgabeer / Media Wales

According to Darren, the council has offered to provide temporary lighting, but insists that it just isn’t good enough for a house he bought for £ 85,000.

The desperate father concluded, “I’ve tried getting through to environmental and public health, but I just can’t get through.

“I’m just being transferred to different people and have to explain the whole story again and that’s annoying.

“People need to know what we’ve been through for the past 16 years. All the undressing and packing, they should move us, but that’s all over so it was a nightmare.”

The Carmarthenshire Council is believed to be working on a resolution to end the ordeal of the family.

In a statement from Board Member for Public Protection Council Cllr Philip Hughes said, “We are working with the tenant to resolve pest problems within the property.

The recent rodent-related incident resulted in the family running out of electricity upstairs after the rats chewed through cables in the attic.

“We did a full pest survey, cleared debris from the affected area, and performed a full drainage system survey to determine the cause.

“Work to resolve the problem continues, with housing and environmental health officials working to identify and remediate the cause.”

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