A mum says her council flat has been “completely taken over” by rats – as shocking footage shows them scurrying around the kitchen.
Katie Fox, of St Gabriel’s Court in Dover Road, Folkestone, has told how she wakes up at night worrying that the rodents are crawling over her three children.
Videos show the vermin in a kitchen cupboard and dashing behind cabinets.
After nine “horrible” months of living in “constant worry” about the rats, the family was finally moved into temporary accommodation.
Folkestone and Hythe District Council says several investigative surveys have been carried out and more visits will take place.
Miss Fox is terrified she could be moved back into the home – and is angry that nothing was done sooner.
The 26-year-old told KentOnline: “It was horrible. Every time I went into the kitchen, I was always worried I would see one.
“You’d hear them. You were always worried whether something else had been eaten.
“It was very unsettling, and you were always wondering what they were going to do next.
“It was constant worry and panic, especially for my children.”
Miss Fox says the issues first started in January 2024, when FHDC replaced the kitchen in the two-storey flat.
Almost immediately after, she started seeing critters in her cupboards.
Pest controllers were sent out and a hole was blocked off with wire wool and traps put down.
This fixed the issue temporarily, but the rats came back within about two months.
The full-time mum says FHDC refused to pay for more exterminators, telling the mum – who moved in seven years ago – to cough up the fee herself, and suggested a lack of cleaning was causing the problem.
But she said: “If it’s something that I’d done, they’d been here from the very beginning.
“They wouldn’t be here six, seven years down the line.
“We were making sure there was no food left on the sides.
“We were having to make sure that everything was put in cupboards because if it wasn’t put in cupboards, we’d find it had been eaten or it had been chewed at.
“Even if we’d left clothes in front of the washing machine, ready to put in the washing machine, we’d come back and find them chewed.”
Her neighbour, Doris Wright, also has a rat problem, but to a lesser extent.
Her daughter Anita Wright said: “A couple of years ago, when I would visit my mum, we could hear things in the ceiling.
“But we didn’t actually have rats come into the flat until after the kitchen was done, so it’s a similar situation.
“Something they did during the renovation, maybe opened some access, or they didn’t seal something in there.”
Despite being temporarily moved into a new-build in Dover, Miss Fox is still struggling with trauma from the infestation.
She is living there with her partner Pat, her eight-year-old daughter, 16-month-old son and six-month-old son – who was born six weeks premature.
She explained: “I’m having constant nightmares.
“I just constantly get visions of rats just running around.
“At night, I jolt up in a panic that there are rats on my children. Any slight movement or rustling I hear, I’m on constant alert.
“It makes me feel sick, the fact that I’ve let my children live here. I actually brought my newborn, premature baby back here.”
But Miss Fox says the “rats own the flat now”, and she and her family are too scared to go back.
She added: “They have 100% taken over.
“It’s their house now. They can have my keys if they want. I’ll even hand over my tenancy to them.
“I don’t want to come back here, nor does my partner. My little girl is constantly saying, ‘Please, don’t take me back there’.
“I am so traumatised from this house that I no longer see this as home.
“It could have been sorted a lot sooner.
“As far as I’m concerned, the council just don’t want to spend the money on it.
“I believe that this whole block of flats needs ripping right back down to the foundations and sorted out that way. I don’t believe it’s going to be sorted any other way.
“The fact that they’ve just tried to shove it on me all the time, saying that I’ve caused it, I’ve done it. They don’t want to admit it.”
The district council would not confirm whether Miss Fox would be moved back into the flat.
A spokesman said: “We’re aware of the situation, and several investigative surveys have already been carried out.
“We will continue to work with the tenant and arrange further visits to address the concerns raised.”
