Horrified students have told how they woke to find rats trying to climb out of the toilet at their rented home.

On two mornings in a row the loo seat was lifted at the Canterbury house to reveal the shock sight of a rodent nestled in the water below.

The tenants say rats were also seen scurrying around the kitchen at the property in Tenterden Drive, which was occupied by seven University of Kent students.

Elle Silvester, 20, says they moved into the house in September last year - their first time living off-campus.

She says they suffered issues with mould, dripping taps and a broken washing machine, but nothing was to prepare them for the grim discoveries made in December.

"One of our housemates woke up to find the ungodly sight of a rat in our shared girls' toilet," said Elle.

“The rat, still alive, couldn’t get out of the toilet bowl and drowned. We reported it and disposed of it in a plastic bag in the bin.

“The next morning, the same thing happened. Once again, it drowned and we updated [the letting agents] immediately.

“We thought we were being paranoid, but the same night we saw a rat run across our kitchen and hide behind our fridge."

Rats are able to hold their breath for three minutes and can navigate narrow pipes by collapsing their ribs, according to National Geographic.

The rodents are also able to tread water for three days.

The tenants alerted letting agent Varsity Canterbury, which manages the property and specialises in “exceptional quality student accommodation".

They were sent some traps but no rats were ever caught - although the housemates say they could still hear them scurrying around.

“To be told there was no rodent activity when we could clearly hear it was beyond frustrating," she said.

The rats were not the only issues the housemates faced.

"So many problems arose which made living an absolute headache," said Elle.

"At first it was little problems like dripping taps, a broken washing machine and broken drawers.

“Then the light went in the boys' bathroom with no windows, which meant they had to use the flashlights on their phones if they wanted to be able to see.

“Then we moved onto having mould. We’d clean it and it would come straight back no matter what we did.

"The property manager told us ‘mould is an issue caused by high humidity’.

“We’ve since found out that it was caused by a leak in the roof.”

The group say they contacted Varsity to raise the issue in November but nobody came to look at the extent of the mould.

"We couldn’t bear the rats or mould anymore..."

Instead they received an email from the property manager, detailing how to clean mould and the reasons it appears, adding that if these steps are followed “any mould issue should deteriorate over time”.

A subsequent health check on the house found that a hole in the roof of the property had led to a leak that caused the mould.

Elle said: “Ultimately, the whole ordeal has been stressful and uncomfortable. We couldn’t bear the rats or mould anymore.

“It’s affected our studies and it’s affected our social and personal lives.”

The rat horror was the breaking point for the tenants, who moved out on February 11 after commissioning an independent health inspection.

"We are concerned to hear about the difficulties that the residents of this property have been having..."

Checks were carried out on February 6 and 14, with issues found including a leak in the roof, mould and fresh rodent droppings.

A report by the inspector, who was working on behalf of a trusted national surveying firm, also highlights planning permission had not been sought to "configure" the property as a "seven-bedroom HMO".

A spokesman for Canterbury City Council said: "We are concerned to hear about the difficulties that the residents of this property have been having.

"No complaints about its condition were made to us, so we were not aware of these issues until the report from the surveyor arrived in recent days.

"As a result of that report coming in, an inspection visit by our private sector housing team has been arranged for later this week.

"It is the responsibility of the property owner to seek permission if the use changes from a home to a house in multiple occupation.

"Such a permission has not been sought for this property and we'll be investigating this now we have been made aware of it."

A spokesperson for Varsity said: “We sympathise with any tenants who encounter problems during their tenancy and we’ll always work quickly to address issues reported to us on behalf of the landlord.

"In this particular case, each time an issue has been reported, we’ve arranged for a relevant professional contractor to attend on the owners’ behalf - in some cases within hours of the report.

"It’s not always possible for issues to be resolved immediately and often they require further appointments and also action from the tenants.”

They added that the property has a HMO licence and when the council visited in September it raised "only a couple of minor and routine repair recommendations which were completed by the landlord".

"The tenants claim that the landlord doesn’t have the relevant permissions to let the property but the landlord claims otherwise and we understand he is currently in discussions with the council regarding this."

While the landlord has a HMO licence for the property, he does not have the planning permission required, according to the council.

Officials from the council advised the firm conducting the health report that for a property to be classed as C4 use, it must have been let to three or more tenants since February 2016 with no exceptions.

It also stated that C4 use class is only appropriate for HMOs where between three and six unrelated people are sharing, but the property in Tenterden Drive is currently configured as a 7-bed HMO.

The council confirmed that as a 7-bed HMO, it would require planning permission under the Sui Generis use class and that no application had been made for this.