The Greater Manchester estate 'riddled' with rats that left young family with no choice but to flee their infested home

Sitting in her new living room, Terene Shaw holds off tears as she clings onto two bags of receipts. It's the record she has of the meals her family ate and the buses to and from her children's school after they were made to spend more than 12 weeks in hotels.

Her family's plight started when Terene moved into a new property on on Oldham's Limeside estate with daughter Megan, 10 and son Joseph, seven, last October 6. It was a house she swapped with another Onward Homes tenant, having previously stayed at a different Limeside home for several years.

But the 41-year-old was left disgusted almost before they had unpacked. The property had 15 holes in the kitchen and plug sockets hanging off the walls and rats soon infested the home, coming in and out of the gaps in the walls.

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The house on Third Avenue was also affecting her family's health, with Terene saying she and her children regualrly woke to find bite marks from bugs. Their strife was later compounded when a sewer pipe at the back of the property collapsed.

They were forced to leave the house on March 30 due to the rat infestation, with pest control called out. They stayed at a Premier Inn in Chadderton and a Travelodge in Tameside, but text message records with a hotel booking system used by Onward Homes shows the family frequently had to extend their stays at short notice - and prepare to move around Greater Manchester.

Terene says it took six weeks from leaving the property before work began on it in May. Ultimately, she was in hotels for more than 12 weeks before she was found a new, smaller home when she warned Onward Homes about her mental health.

She lost almost all