Bromley council has agreed to pay a family £6,000 after an investigation concluded that it did not do enough to help them when they were threatened with homelessness.

The family had been given an eviction notice by their landlord in July 2019, and the council accepted it had a duty to help the family find accommodation in September that year.

The family was not evicted by their landlord because of COVID-19 restrictions and they were not offered more suitable interim accommodation until November 2020.

That same month the council accepted its main housing duty to the family and in December added them to the housing register, backdated to late August 2019.

The council apologised and made a £4,000 payment to acknowledge the time the family had spent in unsuitable accommodation.

However, the family complained to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman and a subsequent investigation revealed that the council did not do enough to ascertain the family was living in overcrowded circumstances, or consider early enough whether the family needed interim accommodation.

The Ombudsman said that had the council looked more carefully into the family’s circumstances then it would have found the family homeless, eligible and in priority need. Instead it took 13 months to do this.

Michael King, Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, said: ‘Because of the lack of action by the council in this case, a family of seven had to live in a single bedroom flat for more than a year longer than they should have. That this happened during the first lockdown, when people’s movements were significantly restricted, can have only increased the distress they felt.

‘While I am pleased the council has already gone some way to remedying the injustice to the family, I have asked it to pay a further £2,000 to acknowledge the effect such a degree of overcrowding will have had on the family. I hope the changes the council will also make to the way it deals with homeless issues will ensure other people are not put in the same situation.’

The council has agreed to apologise and pay the family £6,000 for having to remain in overcrowded conditions for so long.