Anti-social behaviour

We expect our tenants to accept and tolerate different lifestyles and show respect to one another.  If you are being disturbed, a polite conversation with your neighbour is the best way to resolve problems early.  Often we find that people are unaware that they are causing difficulty for their neighbours and are willing to compromise and change their behaviour without further intervention.  This is particularly true in blocks of flats where sound travels more readily and people are unaware of how easily sound can travel.

If you are experiencing any of the problems below, please contact us, or the Police if it is criminal behaviour.

• Intimidation of neighbours and others including threatened or actual violence;
• Persistent rowdy behaviour such as shouting, swearing and fighting;
• Abusive behaviour aimed at causing fear to an individual or community;
• Using or threatening to use a property for an unlawful and/or immoral purpose including drug use or dealing;
• Vandalism and arson;
• Loud and persistent noise not associated with the general use of a property or communal area;
• Dogs persistently barking;
• Environmental acts including fly tipping, dog fouling, vandalism, arson and graffiti.

Unfortunately, we cannot help with any of the issues listed below.

• Actions which amount to no more than tenants going about their normal everyday activities, for example;
  – one-off parties
  – smoking, cooking and other odours
  -household noise such as vacuuming, toilet flushing, normal conversation, swearing, heavy footfall, door slamming, moving furniture, children playing, ball games and any similar activity
• Actions which amount to people not being pleasant to each other but are not sufficiently serious to justify our involvement, such as social media activity, hoax & nuisance calls, parking disputes and gossip.
• Complaints which are not a breach of the terms of tenancy, for example, complaints of people staring, reports of poor driving etc.
• Complaints about people being inconsiderate or thoughtless where there is no breach of tenancy, for example inconsiderate storage of dustbins.
• Complaints about pet nuisance which is out of the tenants’ control, e.g. a dog which barks intermittently when someone comes to the door or cat fouling.
• Complaints about other people having lifestyles that offend others, for example issues about differences in parenting, who people socialise with, how people dress, what they do in their own homes unless the behaviour is a breach of tenancy.

Please contact the Tenancy and Estates Team on 0300 900 3300 or click here to complete the online form. We recommend contacting the Police before contacting us if you are a victim of crime.

Fly-tipping and abandoned vehicles can be reported on myHavebury. 

If you are reporting anti-social behaviour we will open an investigation and agree a course of action with you.  We will review the case on a routine basis and contact you each time to agree the next course of action.

We ask that you use diary sheets to record details of anti-social behaviour incidents. The information provided gives us a clear picture of how you are being affected and is very useful if we have to take a case to court. You can download these diary sheets here. 

Often we will be working with perpetrators of ASB, their social workers and support agencies to help them to stop causing anti-social behaviour and improve their situations.  Sometimes a combination of warnings, legal interventions and support from agencies working with the individual is necessary.  This can take time and we are unable to share details of this work with you due to confidentiality, please rest assured that we will try every avenue to encourage an improvement in the behaviour.

We are committed to tackling anti-social behaviour. Often tenants interpret this to mean we can and will evict other tenants as soon as they breach their tenancy agreement.  This is not the case. Tenants rights are protected in law and legal interventions are reserved for the most serious and persistent cases, where other interventions have failed.

We will close our investigations when there is no further action to take.  This could be because the problem has stopped, the situation has improved or there is insufficient evidence.  We maintain records of all investigations in case the problem starts up again.

We will take an incremental approach to tenancy enforcement.  We will try to resolve matters without legal enforcement where possible. Where there is sufficient and substantive evidence of anti-social behaviour, or where a serious incident has occurred, we will take a firm but proportionate approach to enforcing the terms of the tenancy.

Between Havebury, the Police and Public Health and Housing we have a wide range of tools at our disposal to tackle serious and persistent anti-social behaviour.

We are able to obtain injunctions in the County Court which require perpetrators to stop behaving anti-socially. Where the anti social behaviour is not improving, or where a serious breach of the tenancy has occurred we may seek to evict the tenant as a last resort.

The Police are responsible for tackling criminal behaviour, and Public Health and Housing are able to address statutory nuisances (such as loud music and other environmental nuisances). We often rely upon evidence from our partners in our own interventions against tenancies.  We will give you advice during the course of the investigation about where to direct your reports.