Firstly, I know you are never far from a rat but we have lived here for over 10 years and never seen one – mice, yes, rats, no.
Our neighbour across the road tipped us off at the weekend that he'd seem a rat on our next door neighbour's drive and suggested that if we fed the wildlife we might want to stop for a while – we don't. Then the following day my cat was chasing a rat in our garden – eek – and it escaped into my next door neighbour's back garden. The cat seemed bemused by the size of the thing, she normally only sees small mice! We quite often chat to the neighbour so mentioned rats to him and that we were putting down traps and he said they had seen a rat in their garden but it had gone through the fence to the house whose garden backs/sides onto both our gardens and he had seen it go under their decking so assumed there was a nest there.
We don't really know the neighbours with the decking, I've only spoken to them once when their cat was posted as a lost cat on Facebook so I let them know where their cat was, you would have thought that I'd stolen the cat! We can't agree on whether or not we should tell them; I think that if we don't the problem will get worse, my partner thinks they will react badly and it's not worth the hassle. He also says he'd find it awkward if someone he didn't know came and told him he had rats, whereas I'd appreciate the heads up!
Thoughts?