A bag of excrement and blood, a garden filled with rubbish, and starving pets greeted landlords when they finally managed to evict their nightmare tenants.

Property developers Danielle Ponty, 25, and her partner Stephen Armstrong, 33, of Cowley, were left wondering who could live in a such a house after throwing out a couple who failed to pay rent for six months.

Left behind at the two-bedroom house in Knights Road, Blackbird Leys, Oxford, were about 50 sacks filled with rubbish abandoned in the garden, a bag of excrement and blood, and a pet hamster and kitten.

The couple, both in their early 20s, were evicted on Saturday, June 17. It took five days to clear up the mess they left behind.

Miss Ponty said: "I can't believe people would live like this. Other landlords need to know.

"Some people just don't care. They don't have any morals.

"It's disgusting. We work hard to build this house and make an income for ourselves and get people in who just wreck it."

When the landlords finally got into the house, they were greeted with a sickly smell and a carpet obscured by rubbish.

Both toilets were filled with excrement, three spindles on the banister were broken and there were holes in the walls and wires pulled from the ceiling of the living room.

The semi-detached house was built in January, 2005 and rented to a couple who answered an advertisement on the Internet.

The monthly £750 rent was due to be paid through Oxford City Council, but payments stopped arriving in February this year.

Miss Ponty, a mother-of-one who is pregnant with her second child, said: "We don't really want to rent out to people with housing benefits again.

"I know that sounds a horrible thing to say, but we've been stung badly.

"It gives people on housing benefit a bad name who knows, I could end up needing housing benefit at one stage."

Workmen have been called in to repair damaged walls and ceilings. A fridge which was too filthy to keep was thrown away.

A skip full of rubbish was taken away from the house on Thursday22/06. It is expected to cost more than £1,000 to repair the damage.

On Thursday, a two-bedroom home left in festering decay for 10 years was described by city council officials as one of the most neglected they had seen.

The council rented house in Vicarage Road, off Abingdon Road, was in such a state it is expected to cost more than £25,000 to repair.

The house was so full of cobwebs, excrement, dirt and grime that the council thought the tenant was dead.

In fact, the man was working full-time. He has since been rehoused.