Croydon man slept in car for year due to rat-infested home

The authority was criticised for taking eight months to respond to the resident's initial complaint

A man in Croydon slept in his car for more than a year because his flat was full of rodents, a watchdog report has found.

An ombudsman said surveyors had found the resident's flat to be "unsuitable for human habitation".

Croydon Council has been criticised for its failure to resolve the resident's concerns properly.

The council admitted "not enough was done" to support the resident and compensated him for the distress.

The resident, known as Mr C in the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) report, complained to Croydon Council about the rodents in his council home in the autumn of 2021.

The report said the council had attempted to make several repairs to deal with the rodent infestation, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

However, despite the council's response, the flat continued being inhabitable and the man later escalated his complaint.

The resident's solicitor reportedly sent the council a notice of his intention to sue the authority after he did not get a response for his complaint escalation.

'Distress and uncertainty'

The council responded to Mr C's concerns in late 2022, admitting the complaints had been handled "poorly" and acknowledged the delay, but claimed the resident's lack of tidiness did not help.

The authority told the ombudsman that they did not consider Mr C homeless and added the resident had accepted the council's offer of temporary accommodation in late 2022.

Mr C claimed the experience had caused him "distress and uncertainty", which the ombudsman agreed with in their report.

The ombudsman instructed the council to apologise to him in writing and pay him £3,800.

A Croydon Council spokesperson said: "We accept that not enough was done to support him when his accommodation became uninhabitable and we have compensated him for the distress this has caused."

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