Mum trapped in tiny flat with two kids and mice infestation told she can't move for five years
07.01.2022 - 17:14
/ dailyrecord.co.uk
A mum who is living crammed into a tiny bedroom with her two kids and an infestation of mice has been told she can’t move for five years.
Ellie Riches, has been sleeping on the floor of the family’s studio apartment for the last four years but has been informed by her council she isn’t eligible to move for another five years.
Ellie, who lives with with son Nathaniel, 16 months, and daughter Kenzie, five, said she and her children struggled to live or sleep in the three-room council home.
The 35-year-old there was not enough space for her children to play safely because they were forced to store their belongings on the floor and in piles in the hallway and bathroom.
However, the mum’s problems don’t end there, Nathaniel was hospitalised with meningitis last year when he was a few weeks old and when she came back to the flat it was infested with mice.
She said: “It didn’t help that I was watching I’m a Celebrity at the time we had mice running around.
“I had to throw away my sofa bed because it was riddled with the things.
“I opened it up and there were droppings everywhere.
“I’ve got a mouse here that runs about all the time.
“Every morning I have to get up and hoover the floors so they don’t get hold of mice poop.”
Ellie said there was not enough space for her children to play safely because they were forced to store their belongings on the floor and in piles in the hallway and bathroom.
She said: “Bedtimes are atrocious. When they go to bed, I sit in the bath to watch something so it’s quiet and they can get some sleep.”
She said the lack of space makes it hard for her to help Kenzie with her homework when Nathaniel needed to sleep in the afternoon.
She added: “I feel squashed and claustrophobic. It’s a tight squeeze,