Share this story A council has been recommended to pay 2,000 in compensation to a family of four after it crammed them into a two-bedroom home illegally for two years, the Local Government Ombudsman has found. Mr Green, his wife and two daughters -- aged 9 and 10 at the time -- were accepted by the City of York Council as homeless back in 2010. The council offered the family a property with two bedrooms -- one of which measured only 7.7m 2 . The living room contained a gas fire and back boiler. However, by law the family -- who were forced to accept the property as the council said it would make only one suitable offer of accommodation -- were overcrowded when they moved in, the ombudsman found. The ombudsman said the situation was made even worse by the fact that, even when the matter was brought to the attention of the council by the complainant, his MP and the ombudsman's office, the council still insisted it had acted within the law. This, said the ombudsman, prolonging the family's unsuitable housing conditions. The ombudsman concluded that when the family moved into their property two years ago their household was 3.5 people in terms of sections 324 -326 of the Housing Act 1985 -- this is because children under 10 count as half a person. But, given the size of the second bedroom, the house was overcrowded by .5 of a person from the moment they moved in. The