RATS AND MICE PLAGUE FOX FAMILY

Marika Dobbin Published: August 20, 2012

WHEN Glenroy mother Elisha Fox took her newborn home from hospital this month she made sure to lay rat traps.
Her rented weatherboard is infested with vermin in the walls and roof. Rats and mice crawl over their beds at night, leaving faeces all over clothes and toys.
''The kids are scared of them,'' she says. ''My three-year-old comes running into my bedroom at night because she can hear them chewing in the walls.''
But that is not the only problem with the three-bedroom house, for which Ms Fox pays $1300 a month out of her pension. She cooks on a plug-in grill because the oven and stove are broken. So is the heating.
To wash the dishes, Ms Fox carries jugs of hot water from the bathtub, the only tap in the house with hot water.
The front door does not lock from the inside and the kids cannot get it open, a dangerous situation in a fire.
''The landlord should be made to fix things up because I'm paying good money,'' she says. ''The rats at least should be cleaned up because I have children and that's just foul.''
Ms Fox said the real estate agency managing the property would not bring in pest control because that was only a temporary fix and the rats would be back within months.
YPA property manager Semra Tirli-Bennett said she tried to get in touch with Ms Fox but she was in hospital. After Ms Fox spoke to The Age repairs were arranged.

This story was found at: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/rats-and-mice-plague-family-20120819-24gmk.html