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Michaela Ali has been living in temporary accommodation since March because there are rats in her housing association flat

By Fiona Trott & Ruth Green

BBC News

Landlords are failing to resolve increasing numbers of complaints about rats in rental properties - and some are even blaming tenants' lifestyles, a leading housing official says.

It follows a tenfold increase in rat complaints in the past four years, the Housing Ombudsman for England adds.

It is a growing problem that needs to be "tackled with urgency", Richard Blakeway told the BBC.

The government says it has new powers to crack down on bad landlords.

Tenant Michaela Ali says rats have ruined her life. The 36-year-old nursing assistant is paying £500 per month renting a basement flat in Manchester city centre that she has not slept in since February - because of a rat infestation.

Michaela could hear the rats scurrying around in cavities in the walls, and after she reported the problem, pest control visited and made an access hole in the ceiling in which to lay bait.

"I used to wake up sweating at night, thinking they're going to fall on my head," she says.