Mom fleeing a rat-infested home while her son battles rodent infection

A mother was forced to surf on a couch with friends after her house was overgrown with rats.

Margaret Aitken, 44, says her 20-year-old son was rushed to hospital on Thursday with a viral infection linked to rat feces.

Rodents were rampant throughout the house, gnawing on cardboard boxes, lotions, television remote controls, drugs, and children's dummies.

Margaret, her son and mother, 67-year-old Jan Sidwell, fled the three-bedroom house after the doctors told them to continue living would be detrimental to their health.

And Giroscope property managers have not offered temporary housing to the family since they left the property in Hull on Thursday.

Margaret said, "It's disgusting, nobody should pay £ 720 a month and live well.

"People say how good the Giroscope is and everything, but in the end we are here and everywhere, we have nowhere to go, I can not live in this house."

She says that the infestation of rats left her son bedridden for three days last week after allegedly coming into contact with rat droppings at home.

Margaret says the staff at the Hull Royal Infirmary would have advised her not to return home.

She says the infestation has progressively worsened in recent months after initially noticing holes and rat droppings inside the property.

The vermin targeted rubber items in the property, removing all buttons from a television remote control and chewing on the old mannequins of Margaret's dummies.

Margaret said, "It's disgusting. I just feel that the house is not made for that.

"I was so shocked that the doctors told us not to go back to this house."

She was scheduled to meet with environmental health officials who will decide if the house is habitable.

Margaret says she was "sick" after Giroscope refused to offer temporary accommodation.

But the organization based in West Hull, funded by a charity, says it has made every effort to solve the problem.

They say that subcontractors hired locals to clean up the site last week and that they filled in several holes to keep the rats from going back inside.

A spokesperson added: "We believe the head of the family also asked Hull City Council to go to the property and pay for it.

"We filled a series of holes at the property so the rats could not get inside.

"We did everything we could try, but there is a problem especially with this street with pest control and that's all we can do.