Dealing with anti-social behaviour
It doesn’t matter where you live, how your neighbours behave makes a big difference to your life
We take anti-social behaviour seriously
What can be done about it depends on the type of anti-social behaviour (ASB) and how serious it is.
Our promise to you
If you’ve got a problem with ASB:
- We’ll be open and honest about what we can do
- We’ll tell you what you can do to help the situation
- We’ll tell you who else could help, such as the Police or local council
Sometimes anti-social behaviour can be tricky to solve. Sometimes we’ll have our hands tied. We don’t want to stop you reporting a problem, we just want you to understand – sometimes there’ll be limits on what we can do.
Please remember we don’t have any powers to deal with neighbourhood parking problems, ball games, children playing in the street and normal day-to-day living noise.
If you’re really concerned or scared, please call the non-emergency police number 101. Or if you feel it’s an emergency, always call 999.
- As a customer, you’re responsible for the behaviour of everybody (that’s you and anyone living in or visiting your home)
- This includes what they do in your home, in the shared areas and in the neighbourhood
Anti-social behaviour includes:
- Being a nuisance to other people
- Being very noisy or rowdy
- Taking or selling illegal drugs
- Verbal abuse (that could be shouting or swearing)
- Harassing anyone in the local area because of their race, nationality, sexuality, gender, religion, disability, age or for any other reason
- Abuse, harassment, violence, or threatening to use violence, against our staff, contractors or other people in the neighbourhood
- Damage to a home or a building
- Nuisance from pets and animals
- Using your home for illegal things like prostitution
- Dumping rubbish
- Causing a nuisance with a car or other vehicle
- Noise from children playing, or babies crying
- Personal disputes such as falling out with neighbours
- Normal living noise such as opening and closing doors, going up and down stairs or people talking
- Smells from someone cooking
- Noise of a vacuum cleaner, washing machine or DIY
- Clashes of lifestyle, including cultural differences
- Parking in the wrong bay
When customers tell us about something that we don’t class as ASB, we’ll always try our very best to get neighbours to see things from the other person’s point of view.
If this doesn’t work, we can ask an organisation that are experts in dealing with neighbour disputes to get involved. This is a free and confidential service. You don’t have to speak face-to-face with your neighbours if you don’t want to.
- We’ll listen to you and together we’ll agree a plan of what can be done to help with the situation
- This will include what we can do and what you can do to help too
- And if we need to, we’ll get other agencies involved, such as an environmental health officer or the police
- We’ll get in touch with you so you can keep us up to date with how things are going. We’ll agree with you how often we’ll contact you
- If we can’t get hold of you or don’t hear back from you, we’ll assume there’s no longer a problem and close the case
Let us know if you're having a problem with ASB
Fill in our online form to report ASB or call us on 0800 652 0898. And we’ll be back in touch as soon as possible to find out more or give you some advice.
Report it
When it comes to ASB, evidence is very important.
So please tell us as much as you can.
To help you, we'll need to know as much information as possible about the problems you’re having, especially if they start to get worse.
Keep track of what’s happening and when. And how the issues are affecting you and your family.
Fortunately, most of the time, we can sort ASB issues quickly. But some take longer because it’s difficult to prove who’s causing the problems, and what exactly is happening.
How to record what happens
- Write everything down (especially on diary sheets, see more on these in the next section)
- Take photographs
- Take some videos
- Talk into the voice recording option on your phone to record what’s happening, and when
- Use your phone to record loud music and other noise nuisance
How to use diary sheets
- The simplest way to record what happens and when, is to use our diary sheets
- They’re a really good way for us to understand how bad the problem is and how often it’s happening
- They also show how the issues are affecting you
- You can scan and email them to us, or pop them in the post
- You may only need to fill them in for a few weeks. But if we get to a point where we have to start legal action, you may be asked to carry on filling them in, to show the court that the ASB is continuing
More things you should know about diary sheets
- It’s important you record your details and the details of the person you’re complaining about. Use a separate diary sheet if you’re recording events about different addresses
- Please remember each person in your house must use a separate diary sheet to record what’s happening and when
- If we take someone to court, we need the exact details of what's happened, so it’s very important that you fill in all the details properly
- If there’s shouting or verbal abuse, please write down the actual words people use, even if they’re swear words
- Please don’t write your opinions about your neighbours on the sheet – we only need the facts about what’s happened
- But, it is important that you write down how it made you feel, as this will show the serious effect of the ASB
Still need help?
Doing things online is normally the quickest and easiest way, but we know it’s not always the best way for everyone. You can phone us on 0800 652 0898 (our phone lines are open 8.30am to 5pm Monday to Thursday and 8.30am to 4.30pm on Friday). But remember, the phones do get really busy. And you might have to wait.
Get in touch