Woman forced to wear HAZMAT suit in her own garden after plague of rats invade her £400,000 home and chews through wires in neighbour's car

A woman has been forced to wear a hazmat suit in her garden as she fights off a plague of rats invading her home. 

The first thing Lesleyanne Walker does every morning is pull on her protective outfit before she steps outside and searches for the rodents before she safely lets out her dog.

Her neighbour Marina Gvilova, in the house opposite in Bushey, near Watford, has even had her car damaged by rats eating through plastic under the bonnet.

Ms Walker, who suffers from anxiety, has claimed the infestation comes from the vermin burrowing in from a neighbour's unkempt garden.

She told MailOnline: 'This is absolutely disgusting. I shouldn't have to be living like this.'

She added: 'How I am with my anxiety, it takes me ages to actually open that door and come out because I don't know what I'm going to find.'

However, Ms Walker says she has been abandoned by her landlord - Watford Community Housing (WCH) - despite raising complaints as far back as April 2020.

She moved to Colne Avenue - where semi-detatched houses sell for around £400,000 - in 2007 and suspects her problems with pests are being caused by rubbish left in the garden of another WCH tenant.

After seeing nine rat burrows in her garden one morning, Ms Walker started wearing the hazmat suit. 

She said: 'I'm 58 nearly and this is the first true home that I've had. It's beautiful. I love my garden so much - now look at it.

'I can afford my cat food and my dog food and then every little treat I can save for gets put in my garden.'

Her mornings are spent cleaning her garden, filling in rat burrows with chicken wire and checking rat traps.

It was first taken notice of by external authorities last year when she saw rats in her garden on consecutive days.

She said: 'This time last year I broke my foot and was sat here with my foot up and the amount of rats that came from there [under the fence] scurrying over carrying food.

'That was one day, then it was two days, then it was three days, then it was four days and that's when I phoned the council.'

She paid £18 for pest control to carry out three visits, first to asses, and then to lay bait and traps before returning to see what the results were, but since then she has not been able to get any more professional help of the sort.

But the home was visited again this year as part of the government's Great British Insulation Scheme to reduce energy bills.

Ms Walker says her Project Manager responsible for sorting out her new insulation has been 'absolutely amazing' in trying to get the housing association to act, but she has been given mixed signals about who is actually responsible for the issue.

'Look at my house - it's wonderful. I just want my garden to reflect that,' she added. 

The 57-year-old says she has been told that residents are responsible for disposing of any dead rats themselves, despite their bins only being collected fortnightly.

Ms Walker has now sunk more money into the nightmare situation by investing in bottles of 'dustbin odour destroyer'.

And the smell is even worse in the house opposite - occupied by Ms Gvilova, 51, and her family.

Ms Gvilova has lived there for a decade and believes her home is being ruined by 'a colony of rats' from another WCH tenant's property.

'When I got this house it was like I'd won the lottery,' she said, 'I was screaming and dancing in the office when I got the phone call. 

'And we've worked on the garden for so long, I've spent thousands of pounds on the garden because I love to spend time there. The same for my kids.'

Her brand new Toyota C-HR  hybrid suffered nearly a thousand pounds' worth of damage while sat on her driveway due to what the garage suspected to be rats chewing through internal parts.

Ms Gvilova said that she is now 'terrified' to leave her car on the drive any longer for fear of further damage. 

It is a year after she first reported that problem, but has been told the latest incident will not help the case find a resolution any sooner.

The family's cat has brought home countless dead rats over the last 12 months, but 'the only action they [the housing authority] are taking is putting black box traps in my garden'.

But Ms Gvilova insisted, 'I don't need those boxes,' because the cat is bringing the rats in.

Her main issue remains the smell. 

'I'm literally being denied the right to use my garden,' she reiterated.

'We spend the entire summer out there. We have lots of flies and mosquitos, I'm getting bitten all over. 

'My family's suffering, my finances are suffering and it affects your social life as well - I can't invite anyone over because I'm too embarrassed.

'It gets to the point that I cannot even open a window because instead of fresh air I have the smell.

'Sometimes I really want to cry. God forbid anyone has a neighbour like this. Why was I so unlucky?' 

WCH says it is actively engaging with the residents and doing what it can to support them.

A spokesperson added: 'We are aware of these concerns and we have appointed a pest control specialist. They have already taken initial steps to tackle the issue and will take responsibility for appropriately disposing of any dead rats, so residents should report any instances to us. 

'We are actively working to identify and address all possible sources of the problem.

'We have also engaged with local residents and informed the environmental health team at Watford Borough Council. We will continue to work with all parties to ensure the problem is resolved as quickly as possible.'