How One Woman Was SCAMMED Into Buying a Rodent-Infested House

They say there’s no place like home, but even the coziest and most welcoming residences aren’t perfect. Whether it’s a squeaky staircase you can never seem to fix or a floor that’s ever-so-slightly sloped and destined to be forever crooked, every home has some small, kind of annoying quirks that you put up with regardless. But for Sarah Hurst, who runs a blog called Arthurwears in the United Kingdom, her small home nuisance turned out to be a full-blown rat infestation.

It all started when Hurst was house-hunting for her growing family and found a residence that belonged to a late couple. Since the couple’s children were still living in the home, Hurst had no reason to believe the property was inhabitable. Plus, the entire escrow process went smoothly…well, almost. During the house inspection, they found a sign saying it wasn’t safe to go up to the loft—and even spotted some droppings up in the loft. The warning signs were all reasoned away: The home’s vendors claimed there was once a squirrel up in the loft, and the matter was taken care of.

However, once Hurst and her family moved into the property, the blogger started to smell some unpleasant, musty scents. Since Hurst was pregnant at the time, her husband initially chalked it up to being hormone-related. Hurst’s husband eventually agreed to call a pest controller to investigate—and they were blown away by their findings.

"Within five minutes of being in our house, [the pest controller] confirmed that not only did we have a historic rat infestation, but there was a current rat infestation of live and decaying rats," she said on a TikTok video. "And lots of droppings as well."

The pest controller eventually found the rats were coming into the house via a hole in the pipes—and then proceeded to move around the home through the subfloors, wall cavity, and loft. Hurst paid to get the pipes repaired, and the entire house had to be rewired as the rats had chewed through so much of the wiring that it became dangerous. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the end of it.

"We found out that the downstairs bathroom’s waste pipe had been chewed so badly the waste was actually going under the floor and to the subfloor of the house," she said. "We had to have the whole bathroom ripped out, sealed up, and repaired." During all the repairs, they found rats at various stages of decay. In fact, some rats were so big that they were mistaken for a cat. Yep, a cat.

So the home’s original owners must’ve had no idea about the infestation, right? Not exactly. Hurst and her husband found fresh baits under the subfloors and, after some sleuthing, discovered that a pest control company had been to the property eight times over the past few months—with the last time being the day before the family moved in.

"They sold us the house knowing all of this," she shares. "They didn’t solve the issue and didn’t even tell us about it. They knew we were moving in with two young children and that I was pregnant." Though Hurst says sellers don’t have to disclose a rat infestation, she argues that the couple directly asked them and were lied to. Worst of all? Since the original owners used their homeowner’s insurance on the rat problem, Hurst’s family wasn’t able to use theirs and had to pay thousands of pounds out of pocket.

Hurst was scammed into buying this rat-infested residence—and the internet is both pissed off and terrified. "How could anyone ever do this to a family and children?" one commenter asked. "This made me feel physically unwell," another wrote. "I honestly don’t know what I would do besides cry, and then out of sheer anger I’d be fighting for them to cover every penny." A third simply said, "I felt stressed listening to this." (Honestly, same.)

While Hurst learned a (very stressful and expensive) lesson, she is using her platform to share infestation warning signs and tips for keeping your space rat-free. And, of course, learning how to do your due diligence when buying a new home. "Buying a house is like buying anything else second hand," a commenter wrote. "You need to go above and beyond to ensure what you’re buying is what your happy with, and everyone is out to pull a fast one on you."

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