Tenants trying to keep rodents out of the house may be facing more problems than one.

One Athen’s home that looks ordinary from the outside is facing a nasty problem on the inside.

Rats. Three have been killed so far, and signs point towards more.

Student Zack Osborne lives in an older home just around the corner from the UGA dorms.  He says that lately he and his roommates have had some unwanted guests.

“Downstairs it’s like a dirt floor under this part of the house, and I saw some holes down there before.  So maybe they’re coming in and going through the walls,” suspects Osborne.

Osborne says he thinks that the rats are coming from this sewer across the street. He can hear them scampering around at night.

And it’s not just this house.  Osborne says friends up the street have a rat problem too.

Right now, it is up to Zack and his roommates to clear up the problem, not the landlord.

He told us that he had called the landlord and he said that getting rid of pests was not their responsibility.

Community Protection Administration says that if the landlord is responsible for the problem he or she will be required to fix it. But, if the tenants are responsible (trash, food left out) then they will need to fix the problem themselves.

The administration also told us that most of the time, a rat problem happens because tenants are too messy.

By: Ashley Yost and Patrick Bender