What is anti-social behaviour?

This is behaviour which has caused, or can cause, harassment, distress, or alarm to any person in their home or in the neighbourhood or community where they live.

The law also gives specific definitions of ASB in housing as:

  • 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 what Westward consider to be ASB include:

  • Physical violence and / or threats of violence
  • Hate related incidents (such as those based on race, sexual orientation, gender, disability, or belief)
  • Verbal abuse, harassment, intimidation, or threatening behaviour
  • Noise nuisance – an ongoing or persistent noise at any time of the day or night
  • Vandalism and damage to properties, including graffiti
  • Dumping rubbish, including fly tipping
  • Criminal behaviour, for example drug dealing, violence or threats of violence
  • Pets being allowed to foul in shared public spaces
  • Use of cannabis in home and impact on other households.

When it is not ASB?

We would not normally consider behaviour around different cultures or lifestyles to be ASB, or behaviours which would not be considered unreasonable by most people.

Examples of what Westward consider is not ASB include:

  • Noise from children when they’re playing
  • Family disputes
  • Babies crying
  • Smells from cooking
  • Sounds of normal day to day living that we can hear such as closing of doors, going up and down stairs
  • One-off parties such as BBQs, birthday, or Christmas parties
  • Clashes of lifestyle, including cultural differences
  • Minor personal differences such as dirty looks or fall outs between children
  • Putting rubbish out on the wrong day
  • Parking in the wrong bay or lawfully parking outside a property / on a street
  • A resident’s CCTV pointing at someone else’s window.

You can also read our ASB Policy for full details.

How do I report anti-social behaviour?

Before you make your report, see our link below on What to consider before reporting ASB.

You can also use our ASB toolkit to find out what steps you need to take.

For emergencies that require immediate attention or where you are concerned for your safety please phone the Police on 999

What to consider before reporting ASB

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.

Service standards: anti-social behaviour (ASB)

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.

ASB report form (click to open)

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

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