A council that has been sharply critical of private landlords now says it may not be able to comply with the new Awaab’s Law.

Bristol council – which in the past has campaigned for rent controls and set up its own rental charter to raise standards in the local private rental sector – now says it might not comply with new rules. 

Awaab’s Law comes into force on October 27. Social housing landlords will have to address all emergency hazards and damp and mould that present a significant risk within set timeframes.

But the Bristol Live website reports that the city council has warned that only a third of its council homes have been surveyed, IT systems tracking hazards need updating, and there is a major backlog of repairs.

The same website reported last winter that over 3,000 council homes in Bristol suffered damp and mould, and 300 had repairs delayed by over a year.

Sonia Furzland, the council’s executive director of housing, has warned councillors: “We did know that Awaab’s Law was coming, which is why we instigated a preparedness review to assist us in terms of where we need to be prioritising our work. The historical underinvestment and perhaps lack of focus on compliance areas meant that we were trying to eat a bit of an elephant.

“So we have been focusing not just on damp and mould, but on electrical inspections and compliance, repairs backlogs, smoke detection, CO2 detection, asbestos inspections and stock condition inspection surveys. We have made significant progress but we are not as far forward as we would like to be.”

The council is controlled by the Green Party which blames the previous Labour administration for the likely failure to meet the new standard.

Earlier this year – after the Greens took office – it was reported that Bristol council 

was renting properties from a landlord on whom it served a five year banning order in 2022.