What is anti-social behavior (ASB) and how can we help?
ASB is behaviour by a person that causes, or is likely to cause, alarm, nuisance, or distress to people not in the same household as them. Not all reports of ASB that we receive are considered anti-social. It’s important to remember that everyone has the right to enjoy their chosen lifestyle as long as it doesn’t impact other people’s quality of life.
What is ASB?
Sometimes concerns are reported that relate to behaviour from different lifestyles or things that aren’t considered unreasonable.
Some of the things that we wouldn’t consider anti-social are:
- Children playing noisily or a baby crying
- Noise from DIY or household appliances at sociable hours
- Socialising in the street
- Occasional loud music, parties, or barbecues
- Dogs barking now and again
- Putting rubbish out on the wrong day
- Cooking smells
- How a neighbour's home looks
- Smoking cigarettes or vaping
On the other hand, the following things would be considered ASB:
- Shouting abuse
- Regular, deliberately loud noise (such as shouting or music) at unsociable hours
- Threatening behavior or harassment
- Uncontrolled or frequent parties, especially if they encroach on the street
- Poor animal behaviour including continual barking and intimidation
- Dumping rubbish or fly-tipping
- Bad smells from dog fouling or cannabis use
- Vandalism (e.g. spray-painting or fly-posting)
- Drug-taking or dealing
What to do if you experience ASB
If you feel comfortable, it’s often a good idea to have a chat with your neighbour and talk things through. In many instances they won’t know their behaviour is causing you a problem. Having a friendly chat can often be the quickest way to settle disputes amicably. It’s important that you listen to them too, even if you’re sure you’re in the right, as this will more likely lead to a positive resolution you can both live with happily.
If speaking to your neighbour isn’t possible, or you’d like support from us, please get in touch. We encourage you to report any ASB you experience or witness to us. You can do this by emailing us at antisocialbehaviour@chp.org.uk, calling us on 0300 555 0500, or via your online services account.
How we can help
We’ll always take any reports of ASB seriously, and work with everyone involved to reach a resolution. We’ll judge each situation on a case-by-case basis.
We may ask you to help us gather evidence of the behaviour to help give us a clear picture of the problem. For example, we might provide you with sound recording equipment for cases of noise nuisance to understand the nature of the noise and its frequency.
If the ASB is relating to criminal activity, we’ll support you to report your concerns to the police and/or local authorities, who have powers to tackle ASB that housing associations like us don’t have.
Sometimes we have to take enforcement action against customers who cause ASB, such as issuing written warnings if a customer has breached their Tenancy Agreement. However, this is quite rare. More often we’ll work with everyone involved or use professional mediation services to help communities live together in harmony.
If we have evidence that the customer reporting ASB is being unreasonable or vindictive in their complaint, then we’ll let them know that we’ll not be taking further action in relation to that specific complaint and explain why.
Where concerns resulting from different lifestyles are reported, we’ll offer advice and support to help everyone involved live alongside each other.
For more information about ASB and how we address it, take a look at our policy.