Antisocial Behaviour

In housing, we define antisocial behaviour (ASB) as acting in a way that is capable of causing a nuisance, annoyance, harassment, alarm or distress to any other person.

We know that having a dispute with your neighbours can be upsetting but you have a big part to play in in making yours a happy neighbourhood, Someone’s behaviour may not be classed as ASB if it's not persistent or if there is no risk of harm. It is everyone’s responsibility to stop situations escalating to a point where there is a risk of harm to another individual.

We can only get involved in situations where there is a risk of harm or behaviour poses a risk to another person’s tenancy.

Here’s a quick guide to help you understand antisocial behaviour

Read our FAQs or find out more about the kinds of support that we can offer you. You can also take a look at our useful leaflet on ASB.

As a social housing landlord, we work with a very clear definition of what antisocial behaviour is and when we can get involved and offer you support. We can only get involved in cases where there is a risk of harm or behaviour poses a risk to another person’s tenancy.

Everyone’s situation is different, but we’ll need evidence of antisocial behaviour to support us to open a case. We’ll work with you and look at your individual circumstances and the nature of your complaint to decide how we can best support you to resolve the issue.

We have service standards that we follow for every case, to see them, please click the button below.

Antisocial behaviour service standards

What happens when I report an issue?

In most situations, our first step is to provide advice and support to help you find a solution without getting involved. We'll encourage you to speak to your neighbours, if it's safe and appropriate to do so. This can often resolve these things more quickly.

What if this doesn't work?

If we need to investigate further, our trained officers may need to speak to the people involved and gather evidence to decide on the best response and take appropriate action. Our tenancy service officers use a wide range of methods to tackle ASB.

We'll consider how regular or persistent the ASB is and the harm or likely harm it causes. We'll keep a record of your case and agree clear actions with you on how we are going to tackle the ASB. We'll also agree how and when to keep you updated on our progress.

What else can you do?

• Help you to come to an agreement through Restorative Justice
• Look at resolving the problem by talking to your neighbours
• Issue warnings to the people involved
• Ask neighbours to sign a Good Neighbour Agreement or Acceptable Behaviour Contract
• Seek legal action against the person responsible for the ASB

To find out more about our approach to managing ASB take a look at our ASB Policy.

We're also committed to tackling hate, click here to see our Hate Policy.

We can help you to resolve issues with your neighbour through Restorative Justice (RJ). RJ brings the people who are affected by a dispute, conflict or a crime and those responsible for it together to talk.

We aim to help neighbours involved in a complaint to understand the impact that their behaviour has had on those around them. This will help you and your neighbour to discuss your issues and agree on a positive way to move forward.

We understand why you may feel uncomfortable speaking to someone that you’ve had issues with, but our dedicated RJ officer will support you to explain your point of view. In most cases, both parties are comfortable and pleased that they took part by the end of the meeting.

Click here to find our more about Restorative Justice.

If you feel like you're experiencing ASB, you should report it to us as soon as possible.

When filling out the form please give us as much detail as possible. We'll get in contact with you directly to let you know what will happen next.