As our resident, you have the right to enjoy your home in peace. We take nuisance and anti-social behaviour seriously.

We work in partnership with a number of local agencies, including the police and Huntingdonshire District Council, as well as attending Huntingdonshire Community Safety Partnership Problem Solving Group, in order to tackle anti-social behaviour in the communities we work in.

Anti-social behaviour can include:

• aggressive and threatening language and behaviour
• violence against people and property
• racial harassment
• using or selling drugs or other illegal substances
• loud noise, especially late at night
• allowing pets to make excessive noise, or be a danger to others
• vandalising property, including graffiti
• dumping rubbish and litter
• parking vehicles inconsiderately, abandoning vehicles, or keeping untaxed vehicles on the street
• domestic violence
• being intolerant of other people’s lifestyles
• being a general nuisance in the community.

We have signed up to a voluntary code, which sets out how we will tackle anti-social behaviour. The key areas of the Respect Standard for Housing Management form part of our anti-social behaviour strategy.
 

What to do if you’re experiencing anti-social behaviour
 

If you’re affected by anti-social behaviour, contact us by phone, email or letter.

If your problem is not too serious, we may encourage you to talk to your neighbour. If it’s more serious, we may ask you to keep records of incidents, so that we can decide what action to take.

We may involve our Neighbourhood Officers or Neighbourhood Wardens, or work with other agencies, such as the council, the police, social services, the Probation Service or an independent mediation service, to try to stop the problem. This might involve getting someone to sign up to an Acceptable Behaviour Contract – where they agree to stop causing a nuisance.

If these approaches don’t stop the problem, we may go on to take legal action.

This can include:

• applying for an injunction (an Anti-Social Behaviour Injunction), which can include powers of arrest
• working with the police and the local authority to apply for an Anti-Social Behaviour Order (ASBO)
• applying for a Parenting Order, making parents take responsibility for their children
• applying for Demotion Order – the tenant’s tenancy is reduced to an assured shorthold tenancy, so that it is easier for us to get them to move out if they don’t behave better (we can reverse this later)
• serve a Notice Seeking Possession – which warns we may take them to court to take back their home, and then
• applying for a Possession Order so that we can take steps to evict them – if the nuisance still doesn’t stop, and
• working with other agencies, so they can use their own legal powers.

We can still take action if the problems are being caused by a family member or friend of the tenant, because we require our tenants to take responsibility.

If you suffering from domestic violence we can offer support.

Racial harassment and hate crime

We want to prevent all forms of racial harassment and hate crime. If you experience any harassment of this type, contact your Neighbourhood Officer immediately.

We are a reporting centre for the Open Out scheme, which tackles this sort of problem. Our officers are trained to deal with any complaint of racial harassment or hate crime.

For more information

For more information please call the Anti-Social Behaviour Team on 0345 266 9760.