Couple sues Toyota Ireland after cars were infested with rats

Date Published: 28-Nov-2012

A Galway couple have successfully sued Toyota Ireland after rats infested both of their Avensis cars by gaining access through a vent under the rear wheel arch.

Ina and Alan Dempsey, who are both in their thirties and from Killcurrive Ard, Cummer, Corofin, purchased two new diesel Toyota Avensis cars – one in March 2006 for €29,250 and the other in April 2007 for €30,600 – from Tom Hogan Motors Ltd., Ballybrit, Galway, which is now in voluntary liquidation.

Mrs Dempsey first noticed something amiss with her 2007 Avensis car when she saw a hole, the size of an apple, in the back seat as she was about to drive to work on January 9, 2008.

“I ran back into the house and told Alan that there must be a mouse in the car. But then I thought it had to be a rat to make a hole like that as it had eaten up through the seat from underneath.

“I told Alan I was afraid to drive the car that day and he gave me his car instead. Little did I know his car was infested as well,” Mrs. Dempsey who works for a hygiene company said.

The couple called a pest controller who came to their home and inspected both cars. He told them the rats could have been hopping in and out of the cars for some time.

“He found rat droppings all over both cars. They were even in the glove compartments and papers in my glove compartment had been eaten.

“He found pools of rat urine in the side pockets in the boots and Alan’s yellow builder’s helmet which was in the boot of his car, had urine in it too.

“I now feel a rat must have been travelling in the car with me at times. The pest controller told us that the rats would have been coming and going from the cars and that once a rat establishes a route or ‘run’ it will use that route again and again,” she explained.

See full report in this week’s Connacht Tribune.