Anti-Social Behaviour

Anti-social behaviour

Find out what is Anti-Social Behaviour and how to report it

Everyone has the right to enjoy their home in peace. You should try to be a good neighbour and keep good relations.

Everyone who signs up to our tenancy will know they have to act responsibly and ensure their children and visitors do not cause trouble. We take a zero-tolerance approach to this problem and if necessary, we will take court action which could lead to eviction.

The definition of Anti-Social Behaviour in the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 is: ‘behaviour likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress to one or more individuals not from the same household’.

Therefore, we do not expect to get involved in less serious problems, such as disputes over parking or doors being slammed, until you have talked, or attempted to talk, to your neighbour.

So if you are having a problem with a neighbour, talk to them first. Explain exactly what is causing you a problem and why. Most people are reasonable if spoken to calmly and politely, and sometimes they may not be aware they are causing a nuisance.

What are examples of Anti-Social Behaviour?

• Domestic violence and abuse
• Physical violence
• Arson
• Hate related incidents (based on race, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, disability, religion or belief)
• Verbal abuse, harassment, intimidation or threatening behaviour
• Drugs, substance misuse or drug dealing
• Alcohol-related nuisances
• Vandalism and damage to property
• Prostitution, sexual acts or kerb crawling
• Illegal and immoral use of premises
• Other criminal behaviour
• Misuse of communal areas or public spaces or loitering
• Noise (e.g. persistent loud music)
• Pets and animal nuisance
• Nuisance from vehicles
• Garden nuisance
• Litter, rubbish or fly-tipping in common areas

Noisy Neighbours – What can I do?

Noise Nuisance from your neighbours can be frustrating, but it isn’t unusual that this person is entirely unaware of the impact their behaviour is having.

What you can do

The first step to solving a problem regarding excessive noise is to politely inform your neighbour about the noise. If you do not want to approach in person and would rather inform them anonymously, click the link to open our Noise Nuisance postcard. You can print this off, fill it in and post it in your neighbour’s letter box.
We hope this friendly approach is will resolve the issue, if it does not work please contact us using our Anti-Social reporting page.

Reporting the noise nuisance to us

If you have informed the neighbour of the issue of the level of noise they are making and they ignore you, please contact us to report the noise nuisance.

When you report the neighbour, we may ask that you fill in a few copies of our Anti-Social Behaviour diary, on this you will make notes of noises made and the time they occurred.

In addition to this, if you have a smart phone / tablet, you can download “the Noise App”. The Noise App is a very easy way to record noise that is causing annoyance. This works on Android and iPhones / iPads. Please follow these links for guide on using the app: Public Information and App user guide.

Once you have gathered this information, please send us an email of the evidence you have accumulated, e.g. Sound Files of noises, a record of noises made on our diary sheets. We will review what have sent and confirm our findings to you.

If there is a need for further action, we will open an anti-social behaviour case.

What should I do if I am experiencing Anti-Social Behaviour?

If you are experiencing Anti-Social Behaviour from another ZK Investments tenant, it’s important that you record any instances of this as it can help with investigations. We recommend you do the following:

• Take pictures / Videos of examples of Anti-Social Behaviour
• Keep details of anyone who may have been a witness
• Keep details of any instances Anti-Social Behaviour, you can do this by printing off our Anti-Social Behaviour Diary sheet and filling it in. When you have filled this in you can scan or photograph the sheet and send it to our email. Click the link to open a PDF of the Diary Sheet.

Once you have done the above, you can contact us to report the Anti-Social Behaviour.

If you are a victim or witness a crime, you must contact the police. In any emergency you should call 999, for a non-emergency call 101.

You can also contact the council in regard to noise complaints.

If you have contacted the police of council make sure to take down any reference numbers and contact details (This could be name, phone number, email address etc) of the investigating officer.

One of my neighbours is taking drugs in their home

We recommend that you do not approach any tenant you suspect with abusing drugs yourself; all drug activity should be reported to the police. You can call 101 to contact your local police department or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

We are unable to act on reports of drug dealing, this is a matter for the police to investigate. We will only take tenancy action following the police charges.

What will ZK Investments do once I have reported the Anti-Social Behaviour?

ZK Investments will treat your report in complete confidence and will contact you to start the investigation into your report. We will then assess whether what you have reported is personal, environmental or Anti-Social.

ZK Investments will aim to :

• Investigate the matter as thoroughly and calmly as possible
• Form an action plan
• Support you through a difficult time
• Contact the offender and issue a warning if appropriate to alter their disruptive behaviour
• When necessary we will take legal action to evict those who continually behave anti-socially towards other tenants

Closing a case

ZK Investments will close the investigation into the report of Anti-Social behaviour once we are satisfied that we have done all we can to solve the problem.

If there are any other serious instances of Anti-Social behaviour in the future, we can re-open cases.