An alternative newspaper in Bristol claims the city council is renting properties from a landlord on whom it served a five year banning order in 2022.
Landlord Naomi Knapp, who is reported to own some 29 properties in Bristol of which 18 required licensing, was convicted in 2022 of eight banning order offences relating to poorly managed HMOs, and was added to the government’s rogue landlord database.
To meet the conditions of the banning orders, Knapp had to evict some 60-plus tenants in 2023 – some of which had to go into the council’s emergency accommodation as a result of its own banning orders.
The Cable – an alternative publication in Bristol – claimed in 2024 that Knapp was letting some of the units as short lets on Airbnb.
And now the latest edition says: “We have found that multiple properties owned by Knapp have not been sold but are being rented by an even more lucrative route – for use as emergency accommodation for homeless people. Bristol City Council, which pursued the original five-year banning order against Knapp, is now indirectly paying the rogue landlord.”
The Cable says this has been confirmed by the Bristol city councillor responsible for housing.
The publication continues: “Knapp has got around the order by letting homes on long-term leases to a third-party provider, Auvelle Housing, which took more than half a million pounds of public money between April 2024 and January 2025. We have no evidence Knapp is still involved in hands-on management of the homes, which would breach her banning order. But her ability to continue profiting, from the same council that went to court to stop her letting properties, demonstrates the limits of such orders. It also underlines how much power landlords wield in cities where councils are desperate for anywhere to house people in need.”
Until May this year, the council was Labour controlled; now it is run by the Green Party.
A First Tier Property Tribunal banned Knapp in 2022 because of missing or inadequately installed fire doors and damaged and poorly maintained walls and ceilings. Fixtures and fittings in communal areas of some properties were damaged and badly maintained, and some properties had rubbish-strewn gardens. Knapp was granted permission to appeal on six grounds, but each appeal was dismissed.
A very detailed report on the latest revelations can be found on The Cable’s website here: https://thebristolcable.org/2025/05/bristol-council-paying-to-rent-homes-from-banned-landlord/
This article is taken from Landlord Today