BAKERSFIELD, Calif. -- A father is worried about his family's safety after he said there was a rat problem in their apartment.

Managers sent out pest control, but the father was not satisfied and wanted out of his lease. Villa Sienna management said they stand by their response to the situation, but they did let the family out of the lease.

Jeff Garnica told Eyewitness News he reported problems with rats in the northeast Bakersfield apartment on January 24.

"We had a rat problem for a while," Garnica said on Friday afternoon. "Now they've got feces in certain spots."

A check in the apartment's crawl space showed a number of areas with plenty of rat droppings under the eves and in the insulation. Garnica said apartment managers sent out pest control workers who put out rat traps. That happened on a Friday, the crews returned Monday, and there was a dead rat in one trap.

But, Garnica said the troubles were not over.

"Now, our problem now is the smell," Garnica said. He said when the family turns on the heater, the attic warms up, and he thinks that's when they smell a strong odor -- which he believes is from rat feces and urine.

And, Garnica thinks that problem, and perhaps the dead rat, also caused a fly infestation. He said the family closed off one bathroom after they found repeated numbers of flies -- which he thinks came in from the attic through a ceiling vent. Garnica said another neighbor reported fly problems when they had that.

Eyewitness News called apartment management, but a man who answered the office phone on Friday afternoon said he could not talk about the family's situation because of HIPAA laws. Those are rules about patient and medical privacy, but the man insisted that prevented him from explaining what management was doing about the rat problem.

The Garnica family includes three small children. The father said he was still worried about their safety because of how the apartment management said they planned to deal with the rat droppings still in the attic above his apartment.

"(They're) going to bring pest control out, and they'll vacuum it up," Garnica said. "Which is my concern, I don't want them to vacuum it up, disturb the fumes, and me still living here."

Garnica said he worries about viruses which can be spread by rodents. He wanted out of the year-long lease which he just signed at the end of December.

By late Friday afternoon, Villa Sienna had decided to release Garnica from that lease.

"This was a problem, and we've taken care of it," Villa Sienna investment manager Lisa Baxter told Eyewitness News. She also said Garnica will be released from his lease.

She stressed the company had taken care of the situation. Baxter said they had sent out pest control personnel within 24 hours of getting Garnica's report, and she said the remaining droppings would be removed with a shop-vac -- which would be safe for the family.

Baxter said managers had offered to move the family to another unit in the complex, but they declined. She is convinced Garnica only wanted out of the lease.

But, Garnica said he was sincerely concerned about his family's safety, and he thinks management wasn't listening to him until the Eyewitness News investigation.