A mother has said her family is living in a rat-infested home in Islington, London, where the rodents have bitten through pipes and forced her children to abandon their bedroom.
Family's ordeal with rats and mice
Stephanie Hamilton, 37, claims her family first battled a plague of mice for years after moving into their Peabody flat in 2016. Last year, the mice problem was replaced by a scourge of rats, yet her housing association has refused to rehome her.
Hamilton says the rats have flooded her kitchen by biting through pipes and forced her three children, aged 15, 12 and six, to abandon their bedroom. The hotel receptionist told Metro: 'It is horrible. It is like living in fear. My kids are traumatised. All they keep asking me is why can't they give us a better house.'
Pest control efforts and rehousing requests
The family moved into the block of Peabody flats, which sit above a food market, in 2016. Within a year, Hamilton says she first saw a mouse when making breakfast, sparking the first of many pest control visits from Peabody. She said: 'It reached a stage where mice were coming out from everywhere for three years straight. I was catching six or seven mice every day. Every single room in the house. We had to disinfect the counter every day.'
The issue disappeared for two years during the Covid pandemic after Peabody sent a surveyor to fill the mice holes, but the animals eventually returned. Early last year, the house 'started to stink… worse than when mice would die in the past'. Hamilton continued: 'Pest control came and as soon as they opened up the cupboard they found a massive rat under there. From then has only been rats coming into my house, we haven't seen a tiny mouse since.'
In autumn that year, Hamilton saw a rat's 'long tail behind the sink'. For a week the family did not use the bathroom and had to use one in the supermarket below their flat. At night the children would go to the toilet behind a tree. Peabody again sent pest control, but when Hamilton asked to be rehoused, she said she was told 'there is nothing we can do'. She claims tenants only get placed somewhere else if their house floods.
Recent infestation and health concerns
The family did not see a rat for longer than six months until they returned in July this year. On July 6, Hamilton was about to make breakfast when a rat ran across the kitchen floor. 'I screamed so loudly my kids woke up straight away and they knew it was a rat. It was massive,' she said. Since then, the family haven't used the kitchen. Instead, they smuggled their air fryer and microwave into a tiny passage.
Two days later, the family woke up to find the kitchen had flooded. Hamilton said: 'It took some bravery for me to go into the kitchen. Water was spraying behind the machine. Peabody sent a contractor out and the guy pulled away the machine and said the rat bit into the pipe.' The broken pipe means Hamilton is now cleaning her clothes in the bath and buying all meals for her children because she cannot use the kitchen.
Her biggest fear is the health risks the rats could bring her children. She explained: 'Rats carry so many viruses. If something happened to me or my kids, what are you gonna tell me? "I'm sorry" won't be good enough.' Her son also fell off his bunk bed and injured his leg when a rat ran into his bedroom. Since then, the children now sleep either with their mum or in a makeshift bed in the living room.
Responses from Peabody and Islington Council
A Peabody spokesperson said: 'We're very sorry for the distress this has caused Stephanie and her family. We understand how difficult the situation has been and are doing everything we can to put things right. We've carried out pest-control treatments and our specialist team that handles complex repairs is looking at how we can resolve this as quickly as possible. The shortage of family sized social homes in central London makes rehousing really challenging, but we'll continue to support Stephanie as our team identifies a lasting solution to the problems.'
Cllr Jackson, Executive Member for Homes and Neighbourhoods in Islington, said: 'We want everyone in Islington to have a decent place to call home. Any household can apply to be homeless, and our team will conduct a homeless investigation. The housing law is very clear in this area, and the council will always follow the law. If the council accepted that they have a homeless duty, the household would remain in temporary accommodation until a suitable vacancy occurs in council housing.'
