A man was horrified to see a 'foot-long' rat in his kitchen
Michael Rutherford discovered his home had been "torn apart" by vermin chomping their way through his furniture.
When he went to make a cup of tea in the kitchen, he was astonished by what he came across.
GrimsbyLive reports Michael claimed he saw a "foot-long" rat in his kitchen.
The 57-year-old has been unable to eat or sleep since rats began terrorising his home at the start of September. They had chewed his furniture and clothes and left his kitchen soaked in urine, he said.
Michael, who is disabled after having a stroke in 2019, said he was left "frightened to death" to find the deceased creature behind his washing machine, and that it looked like a "small cat".
He said: "When I got up I saw something and I just thought it was a shadow, but when I pulled the washing machine back I saw this massive rat... it was like a small cat.
"I shut the kitchen door and thought, 'What do I do?'.
"I managed to take two photographs of it and then rang my sister. It frightened me to death. It was huge."
Michael, who has lived at the house for 22 years, contacted his housing provider, and a pest control worker was subsequently sent to his property to dispose of the creature.
It is the fifth time pest control has visited the property since the beginning of September.
Rat poison was first left in his garden because he has a pet dog, but workers then scattered it inside his home after the situation did not improve.
The distressed tenant now has to tie his bathroom door to his front room door at night with a scarf to ensure his elderly dog, cannot access anywhere in the house where the poison is laid.
A spokesperson for the housing association said staff will be visiting Michael's property again in the coming days, and they remained "committed" to supporting him.
On November 10, workers will dismantle his kitchen, fill in any holes where the rats were coming from, and then put it back together.
But Michael said the entire kitchen smells of rat urine and was "full of holes".
He claimed he should be fitted with a new kitchen, since his current one is 32 years old.
Previously Michael said: "That kitchen is falling to bits, it smells like rat urine and is full of holes.
"And November 10 is too far away. I've rung about eight times and told them I'm going to have a breakdown, that I want to move out of the property - but I've got nowhere to go. It's madness."
A spokesperson for housing association said: “We are in regular contact with Mr Rutherford and last month employed a pest control contractor to investigate this issue and offer him support.
“The contractor carried out a follow-up visit on Friday 21 October, will be visiting again this week and we remain committed to working with Mr Rutherford and our contractor to ensure this issue is resolved.”
