creating communities to be proud of
dealing with anti-social behaviour
This section is designed to give you practical advice and information to help you deal with neighbour nuisance, anti-social behaviour and racial harassment. It gives some examples of what Shoreline Housing Partnership considers to be unacceptable behaviour or nuisance. It also contains details of how we will respond to your complaint.
Anti-Social Behaviour
Racial Harassment
Working with Other Agencies
Contact Us
Other Useful Contacts
Statement of Anti-Social Behaviour Policy and Procedure 
(339kb)
Summary of Anti-Social Behaviour Policy and Procedure (49kb)
Dealing with neighbour nuisance (184kb)
Anti-Social Behaviour
There are many types of nuisance and anti-social behaviour, including:
- Noise – playing loud music, arguing and shouting, slamming doors and DIY noise
- Gardens – overgrown, rubbish, bonfires
- Pets – dogs barking, fouling common areas, poor conditions
- Environmental – litter, graffiti, fly-tipping
- Vehicles – parking on grassed areas, repairs, dangerous driving
- Drugs – substance misuse, supplying or dealing
- Violence – aggressive or threatening behaviour or language or actual violence
- Harassment and intimidation – verbal or physical abuse, hate crime
All criminal activity should be reported directly to the police.
Dealing with nuisance and anti-social behaviour
What you can do
Speak to your neighbour – This is often the best approach, as most people are reasonable if spoken to in person. People are often not aware that they or someone in their household are causing you nuisance.
Preparation – Think about what you want to say beforehand. Be clear about what the problem is and how it affects you. Don’t stray from the issue.
How to behave – Stay calm and friendly. Becoming aggressive will not help the situation. Explain what the problem is and how it is affecting you. Listen to your neighbour and think about what they say to you. Try not to interrupt and do not shout or use bad language, even if your neighbour does. Try not to bring up incidents from the past and concentrate on the current situation and what needs to change to make things better. If your neighbour becomes aggressive or abusive – end the discussion.
Keep a record of events – It may be helpful for you to keep a record of the time and date of incidents, the details and to note how this made you feel.
What we can do
If speaking to the people concerned yourself does not work, and if the problem continues, contact the Neighbourhood Services team on telephone number 0845 849 2000 and press option 3 to speak to a Neighbourhood Officer. The Neighbourhood Officer will contact you within set timescales to get more information from you and decide a way forward.
Mediation
In many cases of neighbour dispute mediation can offer a valuable contribution to resolving the problem. The Community Mediation Service is an independent organisation which offers a free, impartial service and will speak to both or all parties involved to try to establish some common ground and work towards an agreement. Contact the Community Mediation Service on (01472) 251054.
How we deal with your complaint
To help us deal effectively with nuisance and anti-social behaviour, we prioritise the complaints we receive. This does not mean that we do not take your complaints seriously, however we must deal with the more serious cases first. Please note that we will not normally get involved in disputes between neighbours unless there is a clear breach of the tenancy agreement. In order for us to treat each complaint in a fair and open way we have categorised different kinds of nuisance and anti-social behaviour and given each type a different response time. Please see below.
Category 1 – severe nuisance or harassment. These complaints will normally be responded to within 5 working days. However, where there is an immediate and real risk to the safety of an individual these cases will be referred to the Senior Neighbourhood Officer for an immediate response.
Category 2 – other nuisance such as noise, rubbish, abandoned cars, vehicle nuisance will normally be responded to within 10 working days.
Category 3 – general complaints including environmental, disputes over boundaries and issues that can be attributed to the season (for example playing of football on communal areas) will normally be responded to within 15 working days.
These categories are a guideline only – it is not always possible to follow the same procedure rigidly in each case, and the most appropriate course of action will be determined by the facts and information available. It will not always be necessary for us to visit you, as some problems can be resolved over the telephone.
Some of the problems that you report to us may not be our responsibility, or we may not be in a position to help you. In these circumstances we will explain to you the action we can take or refer you to other organisations, such as North East Lincolnshire Council.
We need your help!
In some circumstances, where the problem is persistent, we may ask you to complete ‘neighbour nuisance diaries’. This will help us to build up a picture of events and will help us decide what action it is appropriate for us to take.
In more serious cases where legal action is being considered we may need to take more formal statements from you and discuss the possibility of you attending court to give evidence. We will offer you support and guidance throughout this process.
Racial Harassment
Shoreline Housing Partnership will not tolerate any form of racial harassment by or against its tenants and it is committed to working with partners to take effective action against the perpetrators of racial harassment or racist incidents.
The Company is committed to:
- Eliminating unlawful discrimination and harassment
- Promoting good relations between people of different racial groups
- Maximising the number of incidents reported to it
- Supporting complainants, their families and witnesses
- Taking effective action against perpetrators
The current tenancy agreement includes a clause covering racial harassment which means that anyone carrying out racial harassment will be in breach of their tenancy conditions, thereby making it easier for the Company to take effective action when the perpetrator is identified.
Shoreline Housing Partnership is committed to tackling racial harassment and has a separate policy detailing its approach. The Company has adopted the definition of a racist incident recommended by the MacPherson report:
“a racist incident is any incident which is perceived by the
victim or any other person to be racist.”
We have specific procedure for dealing with reports of racial harassment involving our tenants. You can visit our publications page and download a copy of our leaflet - Tackling Racial Harassment.
Working with Other Agencies
Shoreline Housing Partnership works with other agencies, such as the local policing teams and neighbourhood officers, North East Lincolnshire Council Environmental Health Team, Safe and Clean, Neat Streets, Social Services and the Local Education Authority, in order to help resolve any problems at the earliest stage possible, and to offer support where appropriate.
Contact Us
If you want to report nuisance, anti-social behaviour or racial harassment contact our Neighbourhood Services team on 0845 849 2000 option 3 or the Anti-Social Behaviour confidential 24-hour message line on (01472) 572174.
Alternatively, you can e-mail us at info@shorelinehp.com or call in to our Customer Service Centre or Make the Neighbourhood Better Centre - click here for details of where our offices are based.
Other Useful Contacts
Humberside Police |
0845 60 60 222 |
Community Mediation Services |
(01472) 251054 |
North East Lincolnshire Council Environmental Health team |
(01472) 324770 |
(01472) 326471 |
© Copyright 2007-2008 Shoreline Housing Partnership Ltd.
Registered Charity Number 1107876.
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