A former tenant of Sutton Estates who asked to remain anonymous said that they had been in the house for five months and admitted they had fallen behind with rent.

She said she had moved in to help a friend who was struggling to pay the rent, but claimed the house had not been well maintain-ed and they had had no hot water.

She said: “It’s embarrassing because we have been named and shamed, but it’s not all one-sided. I’m not saying we were not wrong not paying it, but we were there five months and had no hot water or gas, and there were loads of people in the area in the same state, some with children.”

But Mr Heffey insisted the tenants had themselves caused most of the problems.

He said: “We have had hate mails but we have had some new landlords on the back of this.”

He added: “If people are in hard-ship we can negotiate. We look at each case on its merits.”

The president of Merseyside TUC Alec McFadden threatened to take the signs down himself and condemned the action as “out-rageous and disgusting” and said: “It’s against civilised behaviour.”

liammurphy

To read our original exclusive story on the “rent dodgers” signs visit http://tinyurl.com/3ryvyq