ONE couple has revealed the horrors of having to pay $1,200 a month for a rat-infested home that smells of rotting rodents.

Brad Power and his partner have been living a nightmare in their Sydney suburb house despite only moving in eight months ago.

The Australian couple had struggled to find somewhere to live due to having two dogs but finally settled on somewhere in Glebe in February.

However, due to the current housing crisis, Brad and his partner are just one of many couples who have had to suffice with living somewhere with major issues.

Brad, who works as an electrician, said they brushed off concerns about the house having a range of problems, including mould, as it was a 100-year-old home and they needed somewhere to live.

However, an infestation of rats has completely turned their world upside down.

Brad told 9news.com.au: “We are paying rent for something we can’t live in.

“We are homeless basically.”

The couple discovered that the rats had eaten through the house under the stairs where they had stored their belongings.

“From there they could get underneath the house and into the kitchen, which is not acceptable,” said Brad.

“They (the rats) ate through everything that was downstairs, the lounges, the furniture, the clothing, anything at all they just ate.

“Everything in storage under there we lost, they just ate through plastic… Outside you can see they have eaten through the garbage bins.”

Things were so bad that a pest exterminator claimed he had “never seen an infestation so bad.”

Less than eight months after moving in, Brad and his partner moved out on September 30.

After the pest exterminator poisoned the rats, they died under the house and left a smell of “rotting bodies”.

However, the couple still had to pay six weeks’ rent despite being unable to live in the property.

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City to Surf Property director Mark Gavagna said the tenant’s health and well-being had always come first.

However, he added that their offers to sanitise and break the lease fee had been rejected by the tenants.

Speaking to 9news, Mr Gavagna said: “We have offered to provide sanitary cleaning of the downstairs area, place subfloor fans under the floorboards and deodorise the premises.

“We have had our handyman visit the property to secure rat entry/exit points where necessary and also booked another pest inspection for 9am Wednesday morning.

“These were all rejected by the tenants.”

He added that everything had been done to solve the issue and the council had been made aware of the problem.

However, he claimed that the rat problem was coming from next door.

“The owner has offered to terminate the lease by mutual agreement in accordance with the tenants wishes and in doing so has offered to waive the lease break fee that would be payable under the terms of the lease

“The owner has offered to terminate the lease by mutual agreement in accordance with the tenants wishes,” Gavagna said.

“And in doing so, has offered to waive the lease break fee that would be payable under the terms of the lease.

“That offer was rejected by the tenants.”

When asked why they rejected the offer, Brad said that they would still have to pay six weeks’ rent after the conditions became unlivable.

The living situation has also made things more complicated due to the couple’s efforts to have a baby.

Both Brad and his partner have stopped taking their hormones to pause their transition processes in order to have a baby.

Since moving into their Glebe home the couple have had two miscarriages and are unable to continue IVF as a result of testing for Leptospirosis – a type of poisoning from rat urine.

“The stress is so high, we are meant to be getting married on the ninth of October but we don’t even know if we can do the wedding… it’s so stressful,” explained Brad.

“We are trying to have a baby, we are trying to get married and now we have no idea.”