Anti-social behaviour

Approaching your neighbour

If you know who is causing the problem and you feel safe to do so, speak to your neighbour. Explain how their activities or behaviour is affecting you. They might not be aware and likely to appreciate you letting them know. This approach can often help to build and sustain neighbourly relationships.  We've put together some tips to help you resolve problems with your neighbours. You can also download our Dear neighbour card.

Is the behaviour ASB?

Particularly when living in close proximity to our neighbours, sometimes they may do things that irritate us, but think about what they are actually doing and whether this is antisocial.

Keeping a record

Write down details of the incident(s) when it occurs.  When you contact us to report ASB, you will be asked for this information as it will help us deal with your concerns. Our ASB Incident Diary sheets will help you do this.

Anonymous reporting

Although you may make reports of ASB anonymously, sometimes this can limit the actions we can take. Please be reassured we will not disclose your identity if you do not want us to, but this may limit the steps we can take to resolve your issue.

Who else should I tell?

It may also be necessary for you to report the incident to another agency.  If the incident is serious or criminal in nature, you should contact the police. If the incident relates to environmental issues such as pets, noise or rubbish dumping, then you should also report to your local council offices.

What happens after I make an ASB report? 

When we receive your report, we will make contact with you to agree the next step. We will try to do this as quickly as possible, but as a minimum this will be as follows.  

• within one working day for high risk incidents
• ten working days for other reports.

We will confirm details of your report and agreed steps in writing. We will also agree a timescale with you for keeping you informed of progress. This is called a case review date.

All reports will be dealt with promptly and sensitively in line with your views and wishes. However, it’s important to know that reports take time to deal with. We’ll discuss your report with you in confidence and won’t reveal your identify to your neighbour or anybody else unless you agree to this being done, but in most cases, the first step to take would be for us to contact the person causing you a problem. They would need to be made aware of their behaviour and the problems that it’s causing so that they have an opportunity to change their behaviour. 

After we’ve spoken to them, we’d then monitor the situation to see whether their behaviour has improved or got worse. In order to do this, we’ll need you to help us by:  

• Writing down the dates and times that problems happen
• Telling us how it has affected you and made you feel
• Letting us know if anyone else has witnessed the problem as well 

Wherever possible, we try to sort out disputes as quickly as possible. However, in more serious cases, we may need to take legal action. This is considered to be a last resort and in order to do this, the Court would require good supporting evidence. 

How does Westward decide which action to take? 

We take the following factors into account when considering what our next steps will be. 

• The type of behaviour
• The severity and frequency of incidents
• The evidence that is available
• The impact that the behaviour is having
• Who else is being affected
• Whether the person/people whose behaviour is causing problems has been given an opportunity to change it (depending on the severity of it) and whether there has been an improvement
• What other intervention(s) has/ have been considered or tried so far 

• Eviction is only taken as a last resort, and is used for extreme unacceptable behaviour that continues over a period of time.

• Please be reassured that we treat information sensitively and don’t be afraid to report it.

• Any serious incident needs to be reported to the police as a priority.

Is it anti-social behaviour or is it a difference of lifestyles? Click the relevant icon to find out. 

ASB Toolkit

Assault	Cars, fly-tipping or graffiti	CCTV
Drug use and dealing	Drunk or rowdy behaviour	Group disorder
Gun or knife crime	Hate Crime	Noise
Pets	Sexual offences	Threats (of abuse or violence)
Unsanitary conditions or hoarding	Verbal abuse, intimidation or harassment

 

We will:

1. Proactively work with local partners to help prevent and reduce ASB. 
2. Make it easy for you to report ASB and hate crime 24 hours a day, seven days a week. 
3. Adopt a victim-centred approach when dealing with ASB, providing effective support and advice for victims, their families and witnesses. 
4. Keep you informed about your case and give you an action plan. 
5. Consider additional security measures to keep people in their homes if they have experienced ASB or hate crime.

We ask you to:

1. Report ASB and hate crime promptly and give us as much information and detail as possible.
2. Report serious crimes and illegal activity to relevant agencies such as the police.
3. Work with us to help tackle nuisance and unacceptable behaviour. 
4. Help us to take action against perpetrators of unacceptable behaviour and crime by providing the necessary evidence.

This form is for you to record your experience of anti-social behaviour on.

It will be sent to a member of our Housing Team to investigate. They will contact you within ten working days of the case being reported to agree an action plan, and within 24 hours for high risk incidents. If you think your incident is high risk, please call our Customer Enabling Hub on 0300 100 1010.

1. Only write what you have seen, heard or experienced.

2. Please be aware that the information given may be used in subsequent legal proceedings.

3. The information given may be passed to other statutory agencies such as police, local authorities and other housing associations, so by completing this you are agreeing that we can do so.

4. Please complete one form for each incident which helps us to gather evidence and understand the whole story.

5. If you know someone else has already completed a form, we still wish to hear your feedback and experience, so please complete the form anyway.

Reporting Anti-Social Behaviour

Note: Questions marked by * are mandatory

*This is a mandatory field. Your name

Case number (if known)

*This is a mandatory field. Your address

*This is a mandatory field. Postcode

Phone number

Mobile number

*This is a mandatory field. Email address

*This is a mandatory field. What type of ASB does your report relate to? (You can find descriptions in our ASB toolkit)

Assault

Drug use and dealing

Group dissorder

Gun or knife crime

Noise

Pets

Sexual offences

Threat (of abuse or violence)

Verbal abuse, intimidation or harassment

*This is a mandatory field. Do you consider it to be hate crime (you can read more about this on our website)?

Yes

No

If you think it is a hate crime, what type of hate crime do you consider it to be?

Why do you perceive this to be motivated by hatred?

*This is a mandatory field. Please describe the problem or incident you are experiencing in your own words. Please give as much detail as you can:

*This is a mandatory field. Where did the incident or behaviour take place?

*This is a mandatory field. Date of the most recent incident

Time of the most recent incident (please be clear about am or pm)

*This is a mandatory field. Who was involved?

*This is a mandatory field. Were you or anyone else injured?

*This is a mandatory field. How did it make you feel?

How many offenders were there?

Do you know them?

*This is a mandatory field. Were there any witnesses and if so, do you know who they were?

*This is a mandatory field. Was the incident recorded on CCTV?

*This is a mandatory field. Did any loss or damage to property result from this incident?

*This is a mandatory field. How often has the problem occurred?

Have you completed ASB diary sheets?

Yes

No

Have you reported this to Westward before and if so could you please tell us when?

*This is a mandatory field. Did you inform the police (if so please tell us the log number here)?

If not, are you willing to give your details to the Police?

Yes

No

If you have reported this to any other agencies, when did you report it and who to?

*This is a mandatory field. What would you like to happen or what outcome would you like to see?

How would you like us to get in touch?

Email

Landline

Mobile

Text Message

*This is a mandatory field. Please tell us your ethnic group, for reporting purposes only

Please Select An Option WhiteWhite IrishWhite: Gypsy/Irish TravellerWhite OtherMixed: White and Black CaribbeanMixed: White and Black AfricanMixed: White AsianMixed: OtherAsian or Asian British: IndianAsian or Asian British: PakistaniAsian or Asian British: BangladeshiAsian or Asian British: ChineseAsian or Asian British: OtherBlack CaribbeanBlack AfricanBlack OtherArabOtherPrefers not to say

*This is a mandatory field. Please tell us you age group

Please Select An Option 16-2021-3031-4041-5051-6061-6465 & overRather not say

*This is a mandatory field. Please tell us your gender

Please Select An Option MaleFemaleNon-binaryRather not say Transgender Prefer to self-determine

This field protects against spam. Please answer the question below.

* Spam Guard: What is the day after Thursday?

• Send a note with our Dear neighbour card
• Keep record with our ASB Incident Diary
• Gather evidence of noise nuisance with the Noise Nuisance App