Luxury DC condo building is overrun with rats - with one resident forced to sleep on balcony during heatwave and another taking weapon to bed every night

A high-end apartment building is so overrun with huge rats that residents can't sleep or cook, and always carry something to ward off the rodents.

The Flats in Dupont Circle, in a popular inner-city Washington DC neighborhood, rents out studios starting at $2,000 and two-bedrooms for $4,300.

But despite desirable amenities like a gym, 24-hours concierge, yoga studio, a pool and sun deck, and dry cleaning, dozens are clamoring to leave.

A survey found 78 of 145 residents who responded saw a rat in their unit in the past six weeks, and they were even photographed in the gym. 

Tenants filmed the 'cat-sized' rats scurrying around their apartments, found their floors covered in droppings after going on holiday, or are woken up by their noise.

Some go to bed armed with sticks to ward them off or hit the walls when they hear them inside, or walk around with objects to throw at them.

The rats are persistent and cleaver, gnawing through walls and brick mortar, squeezing past sheet metal, and sneaking up rubbish chutes.

Residents claimed the building management, Equity Residential, largely ignored their complaints and failed to fix the problem.

The company sent an email last month residents saw as minimizing the problem, despite dozens of complaints over months.

'While only a small percentage of our apartment homes are affected, please know that we are working diligently to address each reported case.

Said they were sealing entry points to the building rats used, and its pest control contractor was inspecting apartments and doing drill and dust treatments to follow rodents to their burrows with a tracking powder.

'We can use you help with keeping any potential food sources off of counters, keeping trash containers empty, garbage disposals clean/clear, and reporting anything that you see.'

One resident wrote in a message to a local social media page that 'lots of us are getting concerned for our health'.

'Apparently there is a horsefly issue in the lobby of the building due to dying rodents in the walls and a stench that has needed to be addressed several time[s] for the same reason,' they wrote.

The problem is so bad that DC Health ordered the building management on July 1 to show it was working to get rid of the 'active rat burrows'.

Two weeks later, it planned to fine the company $500, and more if the issue continued to go unsolved.

Residents, who can't just leave because of huge lease breaking penalties, got fed up and formed a WhatsApp group called 'The rats at DuPont circle' to share stories and evidence, and organize the survey and demands to management.

'I've waked up to giant rats in my apartment nearly every night for the last month,' one comment on the survey read, according to the Washington Post.

'They have died in the walls multiple times and the management does nothing. The smell is so awful and if you have asthma it makes it worse,' another added.

'No matter how often you have the window open or clean it doesn't work if you can't find the source! Even air purifiers didn't help!'

A third wrote: 'Rats are taking the place over, lots of evidence of rats and I have seen them inside my unit various times. I'm going to start charging em rent.'

A fourth recalled: '[One] attacked my foot while I was cooking and then ran under the stove and then another one scurried out from under my dish washer and also ran under the stove. 2 rats in my kitchen.'

Ben Lowe, 25, the resident group's defacto leader, told the newspaper he lost so much sleep from the rats that work colleagues asked if he was sick.

He got so annoyed he caught a rat in a trap and left it in the leasing manager's office to make a point.

Another tenant, Maria Peña, takes a stick to bed to hit the wall when she hears the rats inside, and is so terrified she paid for her brother to come form Bogotá, Colombia, to stay with her for six months.

'I was basically broken in tears,' she said of one time she was so sleep deprived she couldn't function at work.

At least one resident sued Equity Residential and others will likely follow.

Kayla Goodman-Weinbaum took the company to small claims court and got permission to break her leave without penalty, and some of her rent back.

She said her rat infestation was so bad that she moved a couch on to her balcony and slept there, despite a summer heatwave, after discovering a rat gnawed on a lollipop and left the rest covered in hair. 

'Receiving money for my bad experience also isn't a replacement for competent and effective pest control,' she said.