How we can help you

Find out what we do, and don't, consider to be ASB and how we can support you to resolve neighbourhood issues.

What is ASB?

ASB includes:

  • Intimidation, harassment, and/or threatening behaviour, including verbal and domestic abuse and hate crimes.
  • Drug dealing and drug misuse in communal areas, or causing/related to disruptive behaviour.
  • Ongoing and excessive noise - like dogs barking, doors slamming, people shouting, or loud music or TV, happening between 11 pm and 5 am for more than two weeks, and causing people to feel scared, stressed, unhealthy, or unable to live normally.
  • Vandalism and fly-tipping.
  • Arson.
  • General nuisance means things that cause fear, stress, or stop people from living their normal lives. This includes dogs running loose in shared areas, people riding mini-motorbikes around the neighbourhood, or kids playing ‘knock and run’.
  • Physical violence.

We will also always support you with safeguarding concerns, including cuckooing.

If you're worried about a vulnerable person or would like to find out more about cuckooing, click here.

How we can help

The support we provide and the steps we can take depend on the situation. We might:

  • Make a 'Good Neighbour Agreement' between people who aren’t getting along. It’s not a legal contract, but it helps everyone work together to sort things out and make the neighbourhood better.
  • Try mediation - a free and confidential opportunity for you to have your say, be listened to and reach an agreement. Find out more about mediation here!
  • Send warning letters - but we take a ‘phone first’ approach. Warning letters will usually follow a verbal warning from us.
  • Make an 'Acceptable Behaviour Contract' with the person who is causing disruption, to agree on what they can and can't do. We may collaborate with external agencies to create these (such as the police).
  • Consider community intervention. This may be considered when environmental factors are identified as causing ASB.
  • If a customer on a starter tenancy is causing disruption, we may extend their starter tenancy rather than moving to a full assured tenancy. This will only be done after careful consideration, and only if other options haven't worked.
  • Take legal action. We will only explore this in extreme circumstances. To find out more about legal action, please read our policy.

Behaviour we don't consider to be ASB, or situations where we're unable to get involved

These might include:

  • Lifestyle differences where no ASB is present.
  • Entrenched personal disputes.
  • Minor neighbour disputes.
  • Unintentional or accidental behaviour of children.
  • Children playing (unless engaging in ASB).
  • Parking disputes.
  • Boundary issues.
  • Unpleasant but minor actions (such as staring).
  • Proportionate day-to-day household noise, for example, TV, music, radio, electrical items including washing machines and hoovers, and DIY at reasonable hours.
  • BBQs and celebrations.
  • Cooking odours and reasonable household smells.
  • Minor car maintenance.
  • Reports that are not supported by evidence.

If we decide the issue isn’t anti-social behaviour, we’ll give advice based on our Neighbourhood Management Policy, and encourage neighbours to be tolerant or to reach a resolution themselves.

Find our advice for handling neighbourhood issues here.

What you can do

We are here for you - however, it's a good idea to try to sort out any issues yourself if you feel safe to do so. Once we're involved, we may need to work with other organisations, such as the local council or police, to work towards a resolution. This can mean that the process lasts for a long time while we investigate.