Barry home's rat infested walls after Newydd Housing mistake

That’s according to Liam Williams, 34, and partner Jade who described the situation as “beyond a joke”.

Mr Williams, who lives with his family in a three-bedroom semi-detached house built by Newydd Housing on Fford Elin, Barry, says the problems have been going on for almost four years and the housing association aren’t willing to listen.

This has pushed Mr Williams to contact the Barry and District News and expose the damage.

Damp in the downstairs bathroom was identified as being caused by damp insulation in the walls, so Newydd Housing looked to suck the insulation out to resolve the issue.

However, after knocking holes in the corners of the exterior walls of the house, Mr Williams claims Newydd sucked the insulation out every wall EXCEPT the bathroom affected.

He also claimed Newydd damaged personal property while doing it, and, most serious of all, because they took so long to fill the holes in the exterior walls, rats got into the building and can apparently be heard crawling behind the interior walls.

This is a problem that has not just affected Mr Williams home. Now the rats have got through into his neighbours and the other houses on the block.

We went and knocked on the door of number 39 where mum Kelly, while holding her baby child, described not only that she'd heard rats running around in her walls, also, because all the insulation is gone from Mr Williams’ home, her adjoining house is colder.

Mr Williams is furious with how his family have been treated (Image: Newsquest)

Holes in the exterior walls, recently patched up, allowed rats in (Image: Newsquest)

Damp on the downstairs bathroom wall where the problems started (Image: Newsquest)

Newydd say they are working closely with the family over the issue, however Mr Williams claims he's getting little response from the housing firm.

Mr Williams says he has received no documents for the work done on the insulation removal and has not signed off any work despite the issue running for years.

Mr Williams, who has three daughters aged six, 11 and 13, and a 16-year-old son living in these conditions, said Newydd, who he pays £600 a month to live in the property, are not working with the family.

“They are just not listening to us,” said Mr Williams.

“They left the cavities open when they extracted insulation and that let the rats through. Now the rats are running through other houses on the development.”

Insulation in the walls had to be sucked out the house, but they sucked out the wrong insulation... (Image: Newsquest)

Mr Williams now has to leave rat catchers in his home (Image: Newsquest)

• Read more: Barry mum says someone has to listen in damp house nightmare

Mr Williams also claims that due to the persistent issues, his family are now ill.

Mr Williams said: “We did not have asthma before we moved here, now my family and me are all suffering.

“This was the last route of action for us (to come to the papers). We tried to do everything civilly and they (Newydd) did not want to know about it. Now, the next best thing is to publicly expose what they are doing.”

Jason Wroe, chief executive of Newydd said: “We are working closely with Mr Williams and Ms Jones on the concerns that they have, this includes making improvements to their home to rectify the issues they have.

“We would like to encourage them to continue to contact us with any concerns that they have regarding the ongoing work that we have scheduled at their home.”

What are Newydd houses like in Barry? Are they a good firm that take care of their tenants, or are there issues with their properties? Let us know in comments, on Facebook, or email harry.jamshidian@newsquest.co.uk.