A banned Bristol landlord is under investigation after at least nine of her properties appeared on Airbnb.

Naomi Knapp was handed the ban by a First Tier Property Tribunal in August 2022, and in June, LandlordZONE reported that she had failed to convince an Upper Tribunal to overturn the order.

Knapp (pictured), who owns 29 properties in Bristol, was convicted of eight banning order offences relating to poorly managed HMOs and was also added to the government’s rogue landlord database.

After Knapp’s unsuccessful appeal, her third-party property management companies – RentRight and Next Home Solutions – issued tenants of at least 11 houses with section 21 evictions in September, in order to empty her properties by 1st December, reports The Bristol Cable.

Evictions

But at the same time Knapp was banned from taking on new tenants and required to evict existing tenants, she was advertising her properties on Airbnb (main picture) through a third-party host, says The Cable. Some were listed on the holiday lets site at least as far back as July, when she was still allowed to operate as a landlord, but not bring in new tenants.

After the news site approached Airbnb for comment on this issue, the company investigated and has now removed the listings from the site along with her host profile.

Bristol Council declined to comment and said it was unable to provide information relating to Knapp’s banning order because it was in the process of investigating potential breaches. The Cable contacted Knapp about the findings but did not receive a response.

Nick Ballard, head of the local ACORN housing union, says: “This case perfectly demonstrates the ability of rogue landlords to exploit the largely unregulated field that is short-term lets.”

Picture credit: Airbnb