Rats, leaks and a broken fridge forced a mother and her three-year-old daughter out of their Haddington home over Christmas �after the letting agency responsible for her flat failed to deal with the problems, she claims.

Stephanie Latimer, 23, had hoped to spend Christmas in the Church Street flat she rents through tenant management group Orchard & Shipman and planned to celebrate her daughter Casey's third birthday on December 23 there with a party for her toddler's friends.

But the day after a routine inspection on December 20, a leak sprung under her sink and she noticed rat droppings behind the fridge and washing machine.

Stephanie claims that she and her daughter were forced out of their house and spent Christmas staying with her mother in Edinburgh after the company allegedly told her she would have to deal with the vermin problem herself.

Orchard & Shipman says it has been in regular contact with Stephanie and has taken steps to remedy the problems � however, she is unhappy with the situation.

"I had to sort the rats out myself with rat poison," she told the Courier.

"I've been reading up on rats and there's lots of diseases you can catch from them.

"I'm just scared for my daughter. What if she drops some food on the floor and eats it? Three-year-olds do that sort of thing." After the leak was reported by a business below the flat, a plumber was called out to fix it on December 23, when Stephanie was away from the property.

However, since returning to her home last week, Stephanie maintains the repairs have not remedied the problem.

"The leak's still not fixed," she said. "The plumber turned it off or something but it's still leaking and the sink's still blocked. A plumber's meant to be coming round today [Wednesday] to fix it.

"The fridge isn't chilling anything, it freezes but it doesn't chill. They said they're going to fix that but nothing's been done yet. I've just had to put it all back for now and bring my daughter back home." And she expressed concern about her daughter's health living in a home where she fears that there still may be rats.

"It's not nice," she said. "I keep thinking someone's in my house. I hear noises in the floorboards. It's a really hard situation at the moment, everything's just horrible. Christmas has just been shocking.

"It's been a difficult time. My cousin died not so long ago and a neighbour complained about me because I was crying!" Stephanie, who is unemployed, is also angry with what she claims is a lack of help from Orchard & Shipman.

"When I called about the rat faeces they just said I was going to have to clean it up," she said. "I just keep getting fobbed off and nothing really has been done.

"I'm not happy with the service at all." But Orchard & Shipman was adamant that the firm had been doing its best to sort out Stephanie's problems.

CEO John Taylor said: "We take the wellbeing of all our tenants extremely seriously; we appreciate that problems with properties can be very distressing and we actively respond to any concerns tenants may raise.

"We made a routine quarterly inspection of the tenant's property on December 20 and there were no issues at this time.

"We understand the tenant, having moved the fridge away from the wall, found some vermin faeces.

"She contacted us on December 21 when we gave her advice regarding immediate actions she could take and also suggested that she may like to call Environmental Health if she wished, for her own reassurance.

"We also tried to make contact with the landlord at this point as any necessary work to the property would have to be authorised by them.

"We were unable to reach the landlord at this time but we will continue until we make contact in order to further inspect the property and agree any necessary works.

"We are also keeping the tenant informed of the situation and she has the full support of our tenancy liaison team.

"The leak was reported to us on December 22 by the clinic beneath the property where the tenant lives.

"A plumber attended on December 23 and as this was an external leak caused by a burst pipe it was repaired immediately. The tenant was not at her property at this time." The company later added that it had been in contact with Stephanie to monitor the situation and understood that no further signs of rats had been found.

The tenancy team had also spoken with the landlord, who had agreed to carry out necessary repairs � though Stephanie claims to have heard nothing from the landlord.