Anti-social behaviour and nuisance noise

Anti-social behaviour (ASB) is behaviour which has caused or is likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress.

It can affect one person or a whole neighbourhood and covers many things such as illegal behaviour, violence, harassment, youth nuisance and sometimes noise.

Examples of anti-social behaviour can include:

• Hate crimes. Harassing or causing harm to people based on their race, religion, ethnicity, gender, or other protected characteristics
• Crime/illegal activity. Unlawful acts that break the law, like drug dealing and consumption
• Vandalism. Damaging or defacing property, such as graffiti or breaking windows
• Bullying. Repeatedly harassing, intimidating, or threatening someone
• Public disturbance. Loud and rowdy behaviour, public drunkenness, or causing other disturbances
• Public intoxication. Alcohol or drug use in public places, leading to disruptive or dangerous behaviour
• Assault. Physically harming or threatening to harm someone
• Theft. Stealing someone’s property or belongings without permission
• Harassment. Repeatedly bothering or tormenting someone through unwanted attention, actions, or communication
• Fly tipping. Illegal dumping of waste of rubbish

Noise nuisance is more to do with excessive loud music, parties, or noise disturbances that disrupt neighbours and the community. Even though it is slightly different from anti-social behaviour we manage both under the same processes.

Examples of nuisance noise include:

• Loud music. Playing music at a high volume, including music from vehicles, in a residential area
• Construction work. Noisy construction activities like drilling, hammering, or using heavy machinery late at night or early in the morning
• Parties. Hosting loud parties with blaring music and shouting that disturbs the peace
• Barking dogs. Persistent and loud barking or howling
• Car alarms. Continuous car alarms going off
• Traffic noise. Loud engines, honking of horns or sirens that disrupt a quiet neighbourhood
• Noisy neighbours. Frequent arguments, shouting, or slamming doors

We deal with excessive noise within our anti-social behaviour (ASB) process and will manage generic household noise under our neighbourhood management process.

Try to have a conversation with your neighbour in a calm, polite and reasonable manner to try and understand the other customer's point of view. Show willingness to listen and to come to a compromise. Never go around with the intention to make it worse and cause an argument. 

Make notes of any conversation; this may be needed later to show you tried to resolve the matter.

If you do not feel comfortable talking to your neighbour, then contact us and we will decide next steps depending on the circumstances.

If you do report issues of anti-social behaviour or nuisance noise, we may then ask you to collect evidence of ongoing issues.

We may ask you to collect evidence like:

• Recordings of noise. You can download The Noise App, which sends recordings directly to us. Please let us know if you would like to register
• Keep a diary of events which notes the dates and times of any incidents
• Photos that can support your diary entries

We could also refer you to mediation. A mediator is trained to help people resolve disagreements fairly and provides an unbiased view on the problem. Both parties must agree to mediation before it can begin.

We can refer you to mediation for:

• Excessive or persistent noise
• Verbal abuse and threats
• Parking and garden disputes
• Damage to property or vandalism
• Misuse of communal areas

Some problems may disturb, annoy or upset you, this is considered as a neighbourhood management issue. This is different to anti-social behaviour, which could cause harassment, alarm or distress.

Examples of neighbourhood management issues are:

• Banging doors or closing doors within reason
• Cooking smells
• Cigarette smoke smells
• Inconsiderate parking
• Children playing, including ball games
• Young children or babies crying which do not raise any safeguarding concerns
• Reasonable day to day living noise
• DIY in reasonable hours
• Moving furniture
• Dogs barking, an isolated incident or for a short period of time
• Social media, gossip or email disputes that are not harassment or a hate crime
• Singing, whistling, and talking loudly
• One off parties, celebrations, barbecues, or household gatherings at reasonable times
• Using household appliances such as washing machines, vacuum cleaners, showers, toilets, or lawnmowers at reasonable times
• Walking around the property, including going up and down the stairs
• Young people gathering socially, unless they are being intimidating
• Lifestyle or cultural differences like noise from coming home from shift work, meditation, praying and bins not being back

If you are bothered by any of these issues the first thing to consider is how unreasonable your neighbour is being. It may be best to discuss the issue with family or friends before contacting us about it.

Most neighbours do not mean to irritate others and are sometimes unaware they are doing it. If it is persistent rather than a one-off incident, then prolonged noise can impact our day-to-day living and become an anti-social behaviour issue.

We take your reports of anti-social behaviour and nuisance noise seriously, which is why we follow this set of commitments:

• We make sure to take steps to support anyone experiencing anti-social behaviour or noise nuisance
• We acknowledge reports of anti-social behaviour and noise nuisance within one working day
• We prioritise reports of anti-social behaviour and noise nuisance based on risk to customers. We carry out a risk assessment by asking questions on the impact it has had to you and the ongoing issues it causes.

How long will it take us to investigate?

Personal - One working day. If you have been deliberately targeted. Examples include arson, gun and knife crime, hate crimes, domestic abuse, verbal abuse, harassment, and assault.

Nuisance - Three working days. If it affects more than one household, Examples include drug use and dealing, group disorder, underage drinking, and some types of noise.

Environmental – Ten working days. If the behaviour affects the environment around you. Examples include fly-tipping, neglected gardens, pet issues, and unsanitary conditions.

• We then agree an action plan with you once we have assessed your case and keep you up to date in a way that suits you. The action plan will have agreed timescales of when we expect to solve the issue
• We investigate using the appropriate legal powers available to us to help tackle issues
• We make sure Home Group colleagues are trained so the service you receive is the best it can be
• We look to prevent issues from happening in the future. This may include working with other organisations to help improve your quality of life

The Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 introduced specific measures to improve the way agencies work together to tackle anti-social behaviour. These include ways of giving victims a greater say in how issues are dealt with. The anti-social behaviour (ASB) case review (formerly known as the Community Trigger) gives victims of anti-social behaviour or hate crimes the right to request a review if they are not satisfied with how their case has been handled.

If you (or others) have reported an incident three or more times within a 6-month period, you can ask for an anti-social behaviour case review through your local council.

This brings agencies together to investigate how your case was handled. The aim is to stop issues from escalating and fix the problem.

If your review request is accepted, the process usually takes up to 28 days from the date of acceptance. In some circumstances the process may take longer, and you will be kept informed by the local authority of this.

A request can be declined if it does not meet the above threshold, is prejudicial, malicious, or unreasonable.