Antisocial Behaviour

Everyone has the right to feel safe in their home and community, which is why we take antisocial behaviour seriously.

Good neighbour

Being a good neighbour means being reasonable and tolerant of people’s views and lifestyles and considering how our own behaviour affects others. It’s important that everyone shows consideration regarding other residents. This helps to build a strong and friendly community.

Tenancy Sustainment Licence

Our Tenancy Sustainment Licence has positive points to encourage our tenants to be good neighbours. There are also negative points if tenancy conditions are not met. So, if someone’s behaviour results in us sending them a formal written warning for antisocial behaviour, then they’ll get negative points. If this behaviour continues or is very serious, they may lose their tenancy.

What is antisocial behaviour?

A legal definition of antisocial behaviour (ASB) is found in the Antisocial Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014:

Conduct that has caused, or is likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress to any person;
Conduct capable of causing nuisance or annoyance to a person in relation to that person’s occupation of residential premises; or
Conduct capable of causing housing-related nuisance or annoyance to any person.

Examples of antisocial behaviour

Antisocial behaviour can span a wide range of issues, including one-off incidents of a criminal nature, such as violence or threats of violence. We can and do pursue enforcement action including legal remedies for such serious one-off incidents. General one-off incidents of a lesser nature may be dealt with at the first point of contact. However, antisocial behaviour often refers to more entrenched issues which require ongoing case management. Such case management explores the issues behind the situation, building up a bundle of evidence of the antisocial behaviour, whilst using pre-action tools and attempts to remedy the problem with agency partners, before reverting to legal action if this becomes necessary.

Examples of antisocial behaviour include:

• Dog fouling, and uncontrolled and noisy pets
• Vehicle nuisance where there is an antisocial behaviour element
• Noise nuisance at elevated levels or unreasonable hours
• Environmental health issues such as rubbish dumping or fly-tipping
• Vandalism and graffiti
• Drug misuse
• Alcohol-related nuisance
• Prostitution-related activity
• Incidents involving hate crime or harassment, including verbal and physical abuse and threats
• Acts of violence
• Domestic abuse

Hate crime and harassment should always be reported as a crime to the police: in an emergency, call 999 - or call 101 for non-emergencies.

If you are in danger and need the police, but cannot speak:

• Dial 999
• Listen to the questions from the operator
• Respond by coughing or tapping the handset if you can
• If prompted, press 55 (this lets them know that it is a genuine emergency and you'll be put through to the police).

Activities not considered to be antisocial behaviour

Problems caused by differences in lifestyles or everyday living situations are not usually considered to be antisocial behaviour.

Noise

Some noise may be considered a source of irritation by the person hearing it, but to be dealt with as antisocial behaviour it needs to be considered a statutory nuisance.

The following noise is generally considered to be 'household' noise, which is noise not considered statutory in nature:

• Sounds of everyday life, such as footfall, closing doors, going up and down stairs
• Sounds of babies or children crying, upset or playing, including children or adults with neuro development disorders such as autism or ADHD which affect communication, behaviour and interactions
• Toilets flushing or other bathroom activity such as showering
• DIY noise taking place at reasonable hours

Other examples

Other things that are not usually considered as antisocial behaviour include:

• Smells from cooking
• One-off parties or barbecues
• Occasional dog barking or other noise from pets
• Lifestyle or cultural differences
• Gossip, minor personal differences and discussions, including comments on social media and perceived 'dirty looks'
• Use of a doorbell, CCTV, or other home security equipment

Ordinarily these activities cannot be dealt with via enforcement/legal action by us through respective tenancy agreements and legal action.

Report antisocial behaviour

We know that sometimes you might experience antisocial behaviour. If you want to report this, get in touch with us  and we'll contact you to discuss this further.

There are a number of things we may offer to help with antisocial behaviour. For example, if you're suffering from noisy neighbours we may suggest that you use the free Noise App and log details of any incidents. We may also suggest mediation as a way of resolving a disagreement with a neighbour; we work in partnership with Mediation Bucks to offer this free service to our tenants.

At Twenty11 we do not tolerate any form of hate incident or hate crime such as racial harassment. This type of antisocial behaviour is unacceptable.

If you feel you're in danger or at risk, or that criminal behaviour is taking place, please contact the police in the first instance.

Incident diary sheets

Before completing an incident diary sheet, you may wish to get in touch with us  for advice and to flag your concerns.

• Download an incident diary sheet

This is your record of what has occurred, and you should complete as soon as possible when the incident is fresh in your mind. They should be completed accurately, truthfully, and without personal or inflammatory comments about the person or address recorded.

When we receive the incident diary sheets we will assess and let you know how we can support you, whether the issue constitutes ASB, and if so, what action we can take against the person responsible.

Other sources of help and support

As well as the police, we work with a wide range of partners to help maintain safe communities. Here are contact details and sources of information:

Domestic abuse

If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic abuse, please see our dedicated domestic abuse page for more information.