A WOMAN whose life was “ruined” by a rat infestation said she warned council chiefs parts of the city were overrun by vermin 12 years ago.

Grace Brady says she was left with extreme anxiety and depression from the stress of fighting with her housing association and Glasgow City Council to tackle her rat-plagued Whiteinch home.

Councillor for the neighbouring ward Elspeth Kerr admitted last month there was a “huge infestation” across the city when she urged a West End landlord to call in a specialist to deal with the rodents, which prompted Grace to relive her experience in a bid to “finally” pressure GCC into action.

Glasgow Times: Rats were discovered in the home

She told the Evening Times: “It put me under so much stress to the point I wasn’t sleeping while working full-time, looking after my kids and elderly parents.”

She added: “I lost my job, I had a complete breakdown but none of that would’ve happened had they listened.

“It’s taken me this long to get things back together. It ruined my life.

“If they had done their jobs properly, they wouldn’t be in this position now. It’s totally preventable.”

The problem began in 2006 when Grace and her two daughters, then aged two and 13, first discovered the creatures in their home – and 12 years later she has never recovered from the ordeal.

Despite the 50-year-old following the advice Whiteinch and Scotstoun Housing Association (WSHA) and the exterminators sent to her property, the issue persisted and calls to block a hole in the kitchen, following the boiler being removed, where the vermin entered the building went unanswered.

Her 95-year-old neighbour downstairs was eventually moved to a nursing home due to her home being entirely overrun with rats, prompting the rest of the building – who claimed the issue was “getting worse” and they were spotting the creatures “more often” – to take matters into their own hands.

Dozens signed a petition urging Whiteinch & Scotstoun Housing Association to replace open bins at the rear of Medwyn Street, which residents believed were attracting the rodents, with covered wheelie bins, but the request was denied.

Scared for the mental health of daughters Stefanie and Naomi, the 50-year-old pleaded with the housing association to move but her request was rejected – despite having the backing of her GP – prompting the mother-of-two to flee her home.

The family was then left homeless. Grace added: “I’ve been in that house 13 years when this all kicked off in 2006. I found them crawling in a multi-pack bag of crisps in my hall cupboard, eating their way through when my daughter was crawling around.“A maintenance guy was sent out but he said he couldn’t see anything [to prove there were rats]. I could hear them all hours of the day, I installed a security camera to watch my daughter sleep when I wasn’t in the room. It drove me mad.”

WHSA boss Ian Morrison told our sister title the Clydebank Post at the time: “Parts of the Clydeside area appear to have this problem with rats.”

He added it was not policy for the association to move residents experiencing rat problems due to the high number of tenants looking to relocate for this reason.

A spokesman for Glasgow City Council said: “Pest control measures are most effective when steps are also taken to ensure the pests are denied a source of food. “We have undertaken various pest control treatments at this location, but unfortunately amounts of uncontained waste in the bin courts have continued to attract pests.

“It is fully the responsibility of residents, factors or housing associations to ensure their bin areas are kept in good order.

“It is also the responsibility of residents, factors or housing associations to ensure they have sufficient bins to contain adequately the waste that is generated at an address. However, we are currently rolling-out a £6.5m bin replacement programme which aims to take 50,000 old fashioned and unsuitable steel bins out of use across the city.

“In our experience where the containment of waste improves then the risk of rodent infestation is significantly reduced.

“The local housing association has engaged positively with the bin replacement programme and we are hopeful this will ease concerns about infestations in the longer term.WSHA was not able to be reached for comment.