Anti-social behaviour

Sometimes your neighbour may not be aware that they are bothering you. The best thing to do is to talk to them nicely and tell them how you feel. Or you can use our ‘Dear neighbour’ postcard to let them know without saying who you are. You can download a copy here.  

If talking to your neighbour doesn't work and the behaviour continues and you do not feel safe approaching them, please let us know. 

If you witness or experience anti-social behaviour that is violent or poses an immediate safety risk, you should always ring the police on 999.  

Customers found to be the perpetrator of anti-social behaviour put their tenancy or lease at risk - you may lose your home and we will not offer you a tenancy in future.

If a type of behaviour isn’t considered unreasonable by most people, it is not anti-social behaviour.  

People have different lifestyles and everyone deserves to live in their home comfortably, but sometimes you might disturb your neighbours without knowing it. Our Good Neighbour Guide has advice on how to avoid disturbing your neighbours.  

The following are the sort of day-to-day behaviours which are a normal part of daily life (unless they are frequent, persistent, or intended to cause a nuisance):  

• children playing and babies crying   
• household noise due to every-day living (e.g. footfall and general movement around the property, proportionate TV, music / radio noise, noise from electrical items such as washing machines or vacuum cleaners and DIY during reasonable hours as defined by local authorities)  
• one-off parties, BBQs and celebrations  
• cooking odours and reasonable household smells  
• vaping and smoking cigarettes  
• minor car maintenance and minor disputes between neighbours or personal differences  
• reports around ball games  
• disputes over boundary issues  
• actions which amount to people being unpleasant (e.g. staring at or ignoring people)  

• parking disputes.   

These are examples of possible reports that are not anti-social behaviour and it is not intended to be a definitive list.  

For more information on what is and isn’t anti-social behaviour and what action Thrive can take, click here 

Below are examples of anti-social behaviour that Thrive can investigate. In these cases, we will work with other agencies such as the police as part of the Community Safety Partnerships to help deal with the issue. Please note that in all cases of anti-social behaviour, the person committing ASB must be a Thrive customer, household member, or visitor for us to investigate. 

• assault  
• arson or attempted arson  
• gun/Knife crime  
• hate Crime  
• sexual Offences  
• threats (of abuse or violence)  
• drug use/dealing  
• drunk/rowdy behaviour  
• group disorder  
• harassment/intimidation  
• noise nuisance  
• pet nuisance (for example, a dog barking persistently).  

If the behaviour is persistent and you do not feel safe approaching your neighbour, or you have tried and the situation has not improved, we will work with you to deal with the situation. 

In order to help us provide the most right course of action and support, please complete one of our diary sheets with dates and times of the incidents. Completed diary sheets help us to gather evidence and know what has happened and how it has impacted you so we can take appropriate action.  

Criminal offences should be reported to the Police in first instance on 101, online www.police.uk or 999 if there is an emergency.  

 Alternatively, incidents can be reported anonymously to CrimeStoppers on 0800 555 111 or online at crimestoppers-uk.org  

 You can report anti-social behaviour to Thrive in any of the following ways:  

• by email to enquiries@thrivehomes.org.uk  
• via the myThrive hub  
• by phone on 0800 917 6077.  

If you've reported an issue to us and think we haven't taken the appropriate action or responded in a suitable way, you can make a complaint to let us know what you think has gone wrong.

A complaint is an expression of dissatisfaction from a resident about the standard of service, actions, or lack of action by their landlord.

You can find out how to make a complaint here.

The Housing Ombudsman has provided information on the actions a landlord is expected to take in response to ASB. Click here for more details.

For more information about how we respond to incidents of ASB click here or review our Anti-social Behaviour Policy.

So that we can better understand what’s happened and give you the right advice, we’ll ask you to share the below information.  

• What happened and why you felt it was anti-social? Including the date, time and location.   
• Who was involved?   
• How did it make you feel?   
• Is there any other evidence (including photos and videos if applicable)?  
• Have you spoken to your neighbour or anyone else about this and if there was a change?   

You can also use the myThriveHub to record updates about your case. 

We’ll check if you need support and guide you to relevant services. We understand that anti-social behaviour can impact well-being, and we may refer you to specialist services or signpost you to contact them or seek advice directly advice. For more information on organisations that can offer support, visit thrivehomes.org.uk/wellbeing  

Sometimes we’ll ask you to report matters to other agencies who have different powers to Thrive and where necessary we’ll work in partnership with them. These may include:  

• Police – If you’ve experienced or witnessed a crime taking place. This includes but is not limited to, a concern for another person’s welfare, drug activity, domestic abuse or violence, assault, aggressive animals, harassment, hate incidents or crime, damage to your home or vehicle and public disturbances.   

• Local Authority – If you’ve experienced certain types of nuisances. This includes but is not limited to, noise from loud music, parties, DIY and animals, bonfires and smoke and artificial light pollution.   

• RSPCA – If you have a concern for the welfare of an animal.   

When you contact us about a possible case of anti-social behaviour, we will review the report first before opening it as an ASB case.  

We will then take the following steps: 

• clarify the nature of the incident and the risk it poses  
• agree an initial action plan with you and be clear about what actions we can and cannot take, as well as what we’re going to do with the information you’ve provided 
• agree a timescale with you for keeping you informed of the progress of your case 
• contact you before we close the case. 

We aim to deal with all cases fairly and to resolve them as soon as possible. The length of time this can take depends on how serious the case is and whether we need to involve other authorities. 

Once we’ve got full details of the situation, we’ll categorise your report as follows:

The type of action we take will depend on how serious the behaviour is and what evidence has been provided. We’ll first contact the person responsible for the anti-social behaviour, informing them of the impact their behaviour has had and what we expect next.  

To start with we may recommend mediation, issue a tenancy warning, or propose an acceptable behaviour agreement. If it’s unclear who is responsible, we’ll reach out to the affected area, share information with our partners, and gather more evidence. If issues persist, we’ll review the action plan and decide what next steps would be best.  

Where anti-social behaviour is criminal, we’ll involve the police and advise you to cooperate with their investigation. We will support and work with them, and our own actions will be guided by their findings and outcome. For cases of domestic abuse, we will work with partners. The action we can take against domestic abuse and hate crime will depend on how these behaviours have breached tenancy. 

The amount of times we contact you will also be agreed as part of the action plan and depend on the severity of the issue. We may follow up with some questions a few weeks after you’ve first reported the behaviour or when your case is closed to help us understand how well we’ve handled your case.  

Sometimes it’s necessary for Thrive to evict tenants to resolve a case of ASB, however eviction is always a last resort. As a registered provider, Thrive has a responsibility as part of the Consumer Standards to work with both victims of and people causing anti-social behaviour to keep tenancies.   

It’s important that all actions we take are fair, reasonable, and are reflective, of what’s been reported and the evidence we have.   

Unlike the private sector where you may hear of landlords taken back properties by a ‘no fault eviction’ (Section 21 notice), the majority of Thrive tenancies do not allow us to serve this type of notice.   

Should Thrive decide that starting legal action for possession if needed, the first stage will be to serve a notice. Depending on the situation this notice will either be ‘mandatory’ (the tenant must leave the property) or ‘discretionary’ (the court will decide if the tenant needs to leave the property). We’ll then work with the local Court and the timeframe and decision on any order made will be with the Court. 

The anti-social behaviour Case Review is a national tool for individuals to request the local authority to review how their anti-social behaviour complaint has been dealt with. 

Each local area sets a threshold which must be met for the Community Trigger to be used. The threshold is usually set at three complaints of anti-social behaviour, either made by you or someone else. Your local police or local council will be able to provide you with further information about the Community Trigger process in your area.  

This tool cannot be used to report new cases of anti-social behaviour and does not replace Thrive’s Complaints Process. Instead, this tool is to provide you with additional support to resolve anti-social behaviour matters.  

We are always keen to learn about your experiences with our services, and you can give feedback at any time. If you are not happy with the way we have handled your case, you can also make a complaint.   

The easiest way to give feedback or make a complaint is at: thrivehomes.org.uk/give-feedback

• It’s helpful for us to speak to the person directly affected by the anti-social behaviour so we can understand the issue better, however we can work with a third party when requested. Please let us know who you would like us to speak with and provide a completed consent form.