We are committed to ensuring that you are able to live in a
safe, secure and nuisance free environment and so will not tolerate
anti social behaviour in our communities.
Our customers have a right to live peacefully, which is why we
are committed to helping reduce crime levels and ensuring that
everyone has the right to enjoy life in their own way as long as
they don't upset people living near them.
Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) is any behaviour that causes, or is
likely to cause, harassment, alarm or distress or which causes or
is likely to cause a nuisance, annoyance or disturbance to people
living in your neighbourhood.
Anti Social Behaviour (ASB) can take many different forms
ranging from threatening behaviour to neighbour complaints about
loud music or untidy gardens. This anti social behaviour can have a
significant impact on a person's quality of life and if it is not
resolved quickly it can have a lasting impact on the people
involved, the people living nearby and the environment.
Below are examples of Anti-Social Behaviour. These include but are
not limited to:
- Excessive noise (especially late at night);
- Using abusive or insulting words or behaviour;
- Using or threatening to use violence;
- Intimidation;
- Criminal activity such as drug dealing;
- Nuisance caused by animals;
- Damaging property or threatening to damage another person's
property or possessions;
- Alcohol and substance abuse;
- Fly tipping;
- Hate Crime;
- Domestic violence;
- Nuisance from vehicles; and other
- Breaches of the tenancy conditions.
Anyone can be a victim of Anti-Social Behaviour or suffer
its effects, whether they are a homeowner or a tenant of a council,
registered social landlord or private landlord.
We take complaints of ASB very seriously and will work with you
and other agencies to ensure that your problems are dealt with
quickly and effectively.
Being a Good Neighbour
Now that more and more people live in housing communities, we
can all expect a certain amount of noise and disturbance from
others going about their normal, daily lives.
Most of the anti-social behaviour reported to the Trust involves
disputes between neighbours. Here are some tips on how to be a good
neighbour and avoid conflict.
If you are having a party, tell your neighbours;
How to report Anti-Social Behaviour
If you want to make a complaint about anti-social behavior, you
can contact us in any way detailed below:-
Telephone our Customer Hub on 0300-777-7777; Fax - 0300
777 7778; Minicom Number - 0161 969 0720 or a 24 hour answer
machine on 0161-968-0555;
- E-mail us at customer.hub@traffordhousingtrust.co.uk
;
- Report it online. To report an issue now please click
here.;
- Visit us at one of our Local Offices or Customer Access Points
;
- Write to us at Trafford Housing Trust Limited Head Office, Sale
Point, 126-150 Washway Road, Sale M33 6AG
Opening Hours: For telephone queries Monday to
Friday 8am - 8pm and 8am to 12pm Saturdays. Office opening
hours for personal visits please visit the contac us section of our
website.
Dealing with your Problem
Once you make contact with us, your complaint will be
categorised to allow us to prioritise your complaint. We will then
categorise your complaint as follows;
High - For
example, intimidation/threats of or actual violence, Hate Crime
etc. This is also where the nuisance is persistent and is occurring
on a regular basis, such as everyday or 4 or 5 times a week.
In these situations we will contact you within 24
hours.
Medium - For example, anti-social
behaviour linked to drug use/dealing. This is also where the
nuisance may have occurred 5 or 6 times over a 2 month period.
In these situations we will contact you within 2 working
days.
Low -
For example, pets &
animals i.e. barking, fouling etc. Your complaint may be
categorised as low if this is the first time it has ever
happened.
In these situations we will take full details from you regarding
your complaint and recorded this on our in house system.
We will not investigate these complaints unless they become more
persistent, however the Home Living Advisor and Neighbourhood
Partner will be made aware of your complaint in case this links in
with other issues in the area you live.
Any complaints of anti social behaviour will be dealt with by
either the Home Living Advisor or Neighbourhood Partner in the area
where you live. They investigate different aspects of anti social
behaviour and they will provide support and warn the alleged
perpetrators as part of the investigation.
The Neighbourhood Partner will investigate neighbour problems
involving youths, vandalism and graffitti, whilst the Home Living
Advisor will investigate issues involving your neighbour such as
loud music, untidy gardens, and Hate crimes.
As part of the support for complainants, we also have an Anti
Social Behaviour (ASB) Legal Advisor who will provide guidance and
support to the Home Living Advisor and / or Neighbourhood Partner
on how to deal with the anti social behaviour and also should legal
proceedings be instigated.
If your case is assigned to a Home Living Advisor or
Neighbourhood Partner they will contact you to discuss your case.
This can be at one of our offices, at your home or an alternative
venue that you are more comfortable with. If you would prefer, we
can also arrange for an interpreter to be present, or same sex
interviews.
Once our Home Living Advisor or Neighbourhood Partner has
established all the facts of the case, we will also agree an action
plan to help us to resolve the problem together. We
will discuss with you the most appropriate action that we can
take to tackle the ASB you are experiencing will consider a range
of options to resolve the case for you. This may include:-
- Consider emergency legal action to protect you;
- Carry out a full investigation of your complaint and begin
gathering evidence
- Arrange to interview the alleged perpetrator(s) (this can be
done anonymously depending on the nature of the complaint)
- Consider interventions that may help resolve the issue, for
example mediation services.
- Work with our partners to try to resolve your case.
Before we take any action against the perpetrators of anti
social behaviour, we will seek your consent to do so. You will be
kept fully updated throughout your case regarding any action that
we may take.
Diary booklets
As part of your complaint, you may be asked to complete diary
booklets. Diary booklets are used to evidence what anti social
behaviour you are experiencing. It is very important that you
complete your diary booklets thoroughly to ensure that we know
exactly what has been happening.
Why complete diary booklets?
They enable the Home Living Advisor or Neighbourhood Partner to
get a clear understanding of the type of nuisance you are
experiencing. They give an indication of the frequency and severity
of the nuisance.
- They enable Home Living Advisor or Neighbourhood Partner to see
if there are any patterns to the behaviour…it may be that someone
always goes out on Tuesday and Friday nights and comes home drunk
and noisy. Noise monitoring equipment could then be installed at
the most appropriate time to catch the nuisance on tape.
- It will also allow the Home Living Advisor or Neighbourhood
Partner to look at other options to witness or capture evidence of
the anti social behaviour that may be occurring.
- They enable the Home Living Advisor or Neighbourhood Partner to
raise specific incidents with the perpetrators when they are
visited / interviewed.
So what type of information
needs to be provided on the
sheets?
Incident diaries are fairly straightforward to complete
and require some very basic information. The Home Living Advisor or
Neighbourhood Partner will discuss how to fill these in during the
interview.
However, you will need to include:
- The date, time and location of an incident need to be
supplied.
- You need to describe in detail what happened … If for instance
your complaint is of noise nuisance, don't just put 'noise',
describe the type of noise… 'it was exceptionally loud music.
The bas was thumping until 2.30am'. `they were both arguing and
shouting throughout the night. At one point I could clearly
hear him shout 'I f***ing hate you! I'll f***in'
kill you if you do that again!' It is important to note that
you may not like detailing this information however you should
write out in full any foul or abusive language you can
hear.
- Who is responsible for the nuisance behaviour… if you don't
know the name, provide the address and a brief description.
- Give the contact details of any witnesses to the nuisance. This
may include neighbours you saw watching from windows or out in the
street.
- If you have phoned the police, make sure you ask for an
incident number which you should then include on your diary
sheet.
- State how the behaviour you are experiencing makes you feel or
how this has affected you or your life… 'it woke the children up
and took me 30 minutes to get them back to sleep' or 'I couldn't
get to sleep and I was tired at work all day'. 'It is making me ill
and I have been prescribed tablets by my doctor.' 'I don't enjoy
living here any more.'
When you have finished the sheets always remember to
sign and date the entry.
If you are unable to complete diary sheets for any reason, you
should tell the Home Living Advisor or Neighbourhood Partner during
the interview they will be able to assist you in a number of
ways.
You may not be able to write for any number of reasons,
however we can supply you with a dictaphone on which you can
record your complaints.
If English is not your first language, then you can
complete any diary sheets in your first language and we will get
these translated into English so that we can challenge the
perpetrator regarding their alleged behaviour.
Under certain circumstances your Home Living Advisor or
Neighbourhood Partner will complete the sheets on your behalf and
you will just be required to sign them.
Without diary booklets, the Trust will find it extremely
difficult to take action against perpetrators
Please click
here to link to the anti-social behaviour diary.
Remedies
We use a range of legal and preventative tools to help us tackle
anti social behaviour and this is dependant on the severity of the
complaint, these include eviction, obtaining an Anti-Social
Behaviour Order (ASBO), or taking out an injunction. Listed below
are details on some examples of the tools we use.
Injunctions
- An injunction is a civil order obtained at County Court and
places prohibitions on an individual to remedy their anti social
behaviour.
- Injunctions can only be placed on adults over the age of
18.
- Injunctions can be applied for against tenants, owner occupiers
and non tenants, where conduct is capable of causing nuisance or
annoyance to any person, and directly or indirectly relates or
affects housing of Trafford Housing Trust In serious cases
where there have been threats of violence, actual violence or
significant risk of harm, the perpetrator can be excluded from a
specific area, including their own property and/or a power of
arrest can be attached. This means that should the individual
breach the injunction, he can be arrested and brought before the
court at the earliest opportunity.
- If an injunction is breached it is dealt with by civil
proceedings and breach of injunction can result in a fine and/or
imprisonment.
Undertaking
- An undertaking is where the individual promises not to act in a
particular way and there are prohibitions in place that the
individual agrees not to break.
- An undertaking differs from an injunction because a power of
arrest cannot be attached to the undertaking and because the
individual has agreed or promised not to act in a particular way,
the judge does not make a decision as to whether the individual is
guilty or not guilty of committing the alleged behaviour.
Possession Orders
There are 2 types of possession order, these are immediate and
postponed.
Immediate Possession
An immediate possession order is granted by the court and ends
your tenancy and gives us the legal power to evict you from our
property. In cases of immediate possession the courts will decide a
date when the possession order comes into force and this usually
has a time on it of 7, 14 and 28 days from the Court date.
In cases of starter tenancies, if a starter tenant continuously
broken the conditions of their tenancy agreement, they can be
evicted by way of the standard assured shorthold tenancy grounds.
This means that the Trust must give the tenant two months written
notice under Section 21 of the Housing Act 1988.
Where the tenant fails to leave the property, the landlord
may then pursue possession under the accelerated possession
procedure.
Postponed Possession
A postponed possession order is when a Court grants immediate
possession, however then suspends this for a period of time,
usually 1 or 2 years. The courts then place prohibitions in the
court order to prevent further anti social behaviour.
If this postponed possession order is then breached within the
time period set by the Courts, we can then apply back to the Courts
for immediate possession based upon the breaches. However, if no
breaches are reported and the Court order is maintained then the
possession order ceases at the end of the time period set by the
Court and no further action can be taken under this court
order.
Acceptable Behaviour Contract (ABC)
An Acceptable Behaviour Contract (ABC)
is a non legally binding written contract between one or more
agencies and an individual. The contract outlines what the
perpetrator should not be doing and will reflect the behaviour that
has been used by the perpetrator. The contract usually has a
balance between specific conditions and general conditions.
Any agency can lead or instigate an ABC, but they tend to
be led by the local authority, police, youth offending team.
ABC are often used with children and young people, but can
be used for adults.
Anti Social Behaviour Orders (ASBOs)
Anti Social behaviour Orders (ASBOs) are civil orders that
protect the public from behaviour that causes, or is likely to
cause, harassment, alarm or distress. Orders can be made on anyone
aged 10 years or over, who has displayed ASB in the previous 6
months
ASBOs can be imposed for a fixed period, with the minimum
period being 2 years. Alternatively they can also be unlimited
periods of time or until a further order is made.
The orders are not criminal penalties, however, breaches
of an ASBO is a criminal offence.