Dealing with Antisocial Behaviour in Your Neighbourhood

When most people move into a new home they expect to be able to live their lives as peacefully as possible or if they have been living in their homes for some time they expect to carry on doing so without any disturbance

Anti social behaviour occurs when people feel constant harassment or distress as a result of another person's or group's actions. The harassment can take on a variety of forms, such as racial harassment, verbal abuse, discrimination against elderly or disabled people, bullying, and noise pollution from music or shouting.

Taking Action Against Anti-social Behaviour

If you are unhappy with anti-social behaviour where you live and wish to take action, there are certain steps that you must follow. First of all you have to make sure that you know who is causing the problem(s), and that the person or people involved realise they are being a nuisance. Once they understand there is a problem, there are a few avenues you can take to resolve it.

Mediation

If you want to put an end to the behaviour without taking any legal action you can seek mediation. A trusted third party gets involved to help both people in the dispute talk and sort it out. The two parties meet on neutral ground to develop a mutually beneficial plan. If they do not want to talk to or meet with one another the mediator can act as an intermediary. Community mediation services are usually free and include organisations such as Mediation UK.

What To Do Next

When taking action against anti – social behaviour some people may favour the direct approach and try to take action themselves. This could include getting in touch with other people where you live and seeing if they have been affected. You can also take the proceedings to court to stop the offending individual(s) from continuing their harassment, but this only applies to England and Wales. For advice about what to do in Scotland contact a specialist adviser.

Other ways to proceed include getting your landlord, local authority or police to take action against the perpetrators of destructive behaviour.

Getting Help

From Your Landlord

Some landlords are equipped to deal with anti-social behaviour, if they wish to do so. They can ask the police to get involved, get the perpetrator evicted if they are a tenant, re-house the victim or even apply to the courts for an anti-social behaviour order (ASBO). This is only possible if they are a local authority or registered social landlord.

From Your Local Authority

If you are dealing with anti-social behaviour then you have the right to ask your local authority to get involved. They can apply to the courts for a court order to stop the behaviour from happening in your area. This covers behaviour such as drug dealing, which is a public nuisance. If the problem is caused by persons in local authority housing then they can evict them and offer to re-house the victim(s). The local authority can also make it easier for landlords to evict unruly tenants by affecting their tenancy with a ‘demotion’.

From The Police

The police have the power to take action against any kind of illegal anti-social behaviour such as drug dealing. They will prosecute if the perpetrator has caused physical harm to another person or person's property, if they have been verbally abusive and / or threatening and have been inciting racial hatred.

Police in England also have the right to close down properties that have been used for anti-social purposes such as drug dealing.

If you would like more information about anti-social behaviour in housing visit the website of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.