THREE brothers have been evicted for neglecting their York council house and garden so badly that nearby homes were plagued with mice.

City of York Council was forced to evict Peter Morgan, 41, David Morgan, 38, and William Morgan, 35, from their home in Chapelfields Road for neglecting their property, causing a nuisance to neighbours and refusing to pay their rent.

Neighbours complained repeatedly about the state of the brothers' garden, the smell from the house and infestations of mice from the Morgans' home. The council was awarded a possession order at Pontefract County Court on December 16, allowing them to evict the brothers.

When council officers went inside the house they found it was in such bad condition that it had to be completely cleared of all its contents. Four skips were filled with rubbish. The bathroom windowsill was piled high with more than 300 used razors, and the blackened bath was full of rubbish.

Neil McFarlane, of the council's Tenancy Enforcement Team, said: "I was told by council officials that the living room was filled so high with rubbish that the tenants would have had to step down to get on to the sofa."

He added: "The house will need extensive refurbishment, including structural work. A lot of modernisation needs to be done, which we couldn't do before because we couldn't get into the property".

Several thousand pounds of work was done when the house was emptied and Mr McFarlane estimated it would cost the council at least another thousand pounds and take several months to make the property inhabitable.

The Morgans, whose family had lived in the house for at least two generations, owed the council £1,300 in unpaid rent. The front garden was overrun with brambles, more than four feet high in some places. Strewn across the brambles were plastic bags, Christmas wrapping paper and empty bottles.

In the back garden, grass and weeds were growing up to two metres high, concealing bikes, golf equipment and litter.

The brothers were not in the house when council officials and bailiffs arrived to change the locks.

The back door had been left open.

Inside the house, the walls, windows and ceilings were black with dirt and there was an overpowering stench of damp.

Water dripped through a huge, gaping hole in the kitchen ceiling and a rusty shell was all that was left of the electric fire.

But a book about how to entertain guests had been left on one of the chairs.

Mr McFarlane said: "The Morgan brothers were given every opportunity to bring their home up to an acceptable standard, in line with their obilgations as tenants

"It will no doubt come as a considerable relief to the Morgans' neighbours that they will no longer have to put up with their nuisance."

It is believed the brothers are now living separately on the estate with friends.

When the Evening Press contacted neighbours, we were greeted by a wall of silence. Some said they were too afraid to speak out.

It was the first time the council had been forced to evict a family because of the state of the property alone, with no complaints of antisocial behaviour.

Updated: 12:20 Friday, January 20, 2006