Antisocial Behaviour (ASB)

Antisocial behaviour is anything that deliberately causes a nuisance or annoyance. Antisocial behaviour includes criminal and non-criminal behaviour.  

This could be: 

• threatening, harassing or unruly behaviour such as drunkenness and loitering in public spaces 
• drug use – and the mess and disruption that can go with it 
• vandalism, graffiti, fly-tipping and littering 
• disruptive neighbours  
• noise – for example playing loud music at unreasonable hours  
• uncontrolled and noisy pets – for example barking every night  
• environmental health issues such as fly tipping and rubbish dumping 
• vandalism and graffiti 
• hate crime incidents motivated by someone’s age, disability, faith, sexual orientation, or race 
• harassment, including verbal and physical abuse and threats. 
• acts of violence 

Antisocial behaviour: how to get help – GOV.UK

Social housing landlords have a duty to publish policies and procedures on how it responds to reports of antisocial behaviour. If you report antisocial behaviour to your landlord, you might be asked to: 

• keep a record of evidence including diary logs or sheets 
• install a noise recording app  
• report incidents to the police and obtain reference numbers  

If you are experiencing threats or violence or have had threats to yours or someone else’ safety, you must report this to the police. 

If a crime has been committed, you can report it anonymously to Crimestoppers. 

Your landlord should have its own policy that sets out how they will respond to reports of antisocial behaviour. The landlord might: 

• offer mediation between the relevant parties 
• ask you to complete diary sheets 
• implement a ‘good neighbour agreements’ between the parties concerned 
• agree an action plan with the relevant parties 
• install sound monitoring equipment – this varies on availability and whether the landlord has this equipment or if it can be provided by your local authority  

The landlord should document all the attempts it has made to resolve the antisocial behaviour. 

Sometimes landlords need to involve other agencies such as the police or local authority to manage antisocial behaviour.  

If you are a victim of persistent antisocial behaviour, you can request an anti-social behaviour case review. This was formerly known as a community trigger. 

The review allows agencies, including the police, local authorities, and housing providers, to: 

• share information about the case 
• review what action has been taken 
• decide whether there are more actions that can be taken 

More information can be found on the GOV.UK website.

Antisocial behaviour: how to get help – GOV.UK

Household noise should not always be classed as antisocial behaviour.

Household noise could include movement, intermittent music or TV sound, or the washing machine running at night (more common given the energy crisis) and is sound from general living rather than to purposely disturb. 

The landlord should make consistent and reasonable decisions and implement a process for responding to reports of household noise. It is not fair to consider noise as antisocial behaviour if it is living noise and the landlord must consider and agree actions between the parties which are reasonable and achievable.  

In October 2022 we produced a report on noise complaints which sets out best practice for landlords responding to reports of noise from a resident.

Spotlight on: Noise complaints – time to be heard

If you have reported antisocial behaviour to your landlord and you do not think it has responded in line with its own procedure or are unhappy with how it deals with the situation, you should raise a formal complaint explaining why you do not consider its response to be appropriate. 

Please note, if you are making a complaint about your landlord, it must be about how the landlord has handled the reports you have made to it – not to report incidents of antisocial behaviour.