Anti Social Behaviour and Nuisance

Great Yarmouth Borough Council is committed to ensure that all its tenants enjoy the right to a decent and peaceful living environment, where they can enjoy their home without disturbance from their neighbours or other people.

The Council will ensure that all victims of nuisance or antisocial behaviour receive swift effective support which leads to a resolution of the problem.

The Tenants' Obligations

Examples of Nuisance

What you should do if subjected to nuisance or antisocial behaviour

What we will do about your complaint

Evidence

Remember

If you are living in Private Sector Housing

The Tenants' Obligations

At the start of you tenancy you signed a legally binding document called a tenancy agreement. By doing so you have agreed to abide by the rules and conditions laid down by the Council in the agreement. Section 4 of the tenancy agreement, 'Tenants Conduct' details the tenant’s obligations in respect of nuisance and antisocial behaviour.

As a tenant (or joint tenants) you are responsible for the behaviour of every person, including children and visitors, living in or visiting your home. You are responsible for their behaviour not only in your home, but on surrounding land, in communal areas and in the general locality.

You must ensure that you and they do not cause nuisance, annoyance or harassment to; other tenants, their visitors, and people legally going about their business. This includes members of the council housing service.

You must ensure that you, anyone living with you or visiting you does not use your home for any illegal or immoral activity.

You must not commit an arrestable offence in your area.

Examples of Nuisance and Anti-Social Behavior

• ·Using or threatening to use violence

• ·Excessive noise

• ·Harassment

• ·Offensive drunkenness

• ·Vandalism

• ·Rubbish dumping

• ·Drug misuse or selling illegal drugs

• ·Keeping untidy gardens

• ·Racial harassment

• ·Allowing pets to cause nuisance

• ·Using abusive language

• ·Anything that makes other peoples lives uncomfortable and prevents them having the peaceful enjoyment of their home.

·Please remember that even minor nuisance behaviour can become a serious problem if it occurs often.

What you should do if subjected to nuisance or antisocial behavior

If possible, and you feel your safety is not in question, try to solve the problem yourself.

Often people do not realise they are causing a nuisance and a friendly word can sort things out. Be prepared to discuss the problem calmly and be willing to compromise if possible. This may prevent a small disagreement turning into a major row.

If you feel it is not something you can deal with, or it would threaten your safety doing so, you should do either or both of the following, depending on the nature of the nuisance:

What we will do about your complaint

we will investigate your complaint as soon as possible by contacting the tenant(s) in question. Where possible, we will not reveal the identity of any complainant. Often just warning the tenant of a complaint will solve the problem.

In cases where we have received a complaint from one person, we will try to prove this by asking other tenants in the vicinity. It might help if you speak to other neighbours first to see if they suffer the same problem.

If the nuisance continues we have many options to deal further with the situation:

(i) we can go to court to get an injunction. This is a legal order which tells someone to stop their nuisance behaviour or action. If they continue to do so they are in breach of the injunction and can be fined or imprisoned.

(ii) We can seek to evict by serving a Notice of Intention to Seek Possession. This is done on the basis that there is a breach in the tenancy agreement or a breach of other legal grounds designed to prevent nuisance behavior. After 28 days we can apply to court for an order to evict the tenant(s) responsible. This method takes longer than the injunction but the threat of eviction can often lead to the resolution of a problem.

(iii) We may also decide to apply for an Antisocial Behaviour Order. Breaches of any such order can lead to arrest and on conviction, substantial fines and/or up to 5 years imprisonment.

Note: Great Yarmouth Borough Council will do all that is possible to persuade those causing nuisance to stop before going to court. However, persistent failure to comply with tenancy conditions will inevitably lead to the Courts ordering an eviction.

Evidence

Please remember that legal action can only be successful if there is proof of nuisance or antisocial behavior. It is important that you keep a record or diary of everything that happens. Your estate manager can supply you with advice and materials for this.

You should be prepared to give evidence in court if necessary. You should photograph, tape record or video any incidents that occur.

Remember

if at any time it is considered that a tenant’s conduct falls short of that expected this is a breach of the tenancy agreement. Tenants are then liable to be taken to court and evicted if the nuisance persists.

The onus is on tenants to ensure that they, others who live with them or visit them, fulfil all the conditions of the tenancy agreement.

Note: Tenants evicted for a serious nuisance risk the chance that they may be deemed intentionally homeless if they apply for re-housing. The Council will have very limited duties to help them in this case, even if they have children or are sick or disabled.

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