Knowing about neighbour nuisance

A tiny minority can annoy neighbours

A housing association has been criticised by a councillor for informing neighbours by leaflet that tenants causing a nuisance over many months had been evicted.

Eighty leaflets were distributed to neighbouring homes in Chepstow, Monmouthshire following legal action over anti-social behaviour, identifying the woman involved.

But who has the right to know about it - and who is responsible - the immediate street, neighbouring residents or people living more widely?

You give your views on this issue

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JOHN PRIDAY, nuisance prevention manager for Charter, the housing association concerned, explains how his organisation approaches such situations.

Millions of individuals and families across Britain live in accommodation provided by registered social landlords; mainly local councils and housing associations.

The vast majority live happily in their homes and get on with their neighbours. A tiny minority behave in ways that make life a misery for those around them.

This can range from noise and constant verbal abuse to vandalism, intimidation and outright violence. When this occurs, it can blight a whole community.

The government urges landlords not only to deal with such anti-social behaviour but to reassure the immediate victims and the wider community that they are being protected.

John Priday, nuisance prevention manager for Charter Housing Association

Taking legal action to stop such behaviour is not done lightly, and evicting perpetrators from their homes is very much a last resort.

However when this becomes necessary, after many other avenues including injunctions, ASBOs, acceptable behaviour contracts and prosecutions have failed, who should be told of the outcome?

Home Office guidelines certainly encourage landlords to let the community know what has been done to resolve the problem.

Different landlords interpret this in different ways. Some inform the media when an individual is taken to court and encourage journalists to cover the case, others issue press releases while some post details on the internet.

At Charter, we aim to strike a balance which protects the rights of the individual or family being evicted while, at the same time, reassuring the community that their concerns have been acted upon.

We usually make the most moderate interpretation of government guidelines. In other words we tend to issue leaflets informing the immediate community of the action taken.

This reassures those who need to be reassured and sends a message to others in the community that anti-social behaviour towards neighbours won't be tolerated.

It provides factual information which stops the local rumour mill in its tracks while, at the same time, it seeks to avoid prejudicing the future position of the person or family evicted.

In a recent case we were criticised by a local councillor for distributing leaflets to surrounding houses following an eviction, explaining what had occurred.

Naturally everyone is entitled to their opinion but it should be noted that this action was aimed solely at calming the fears of a neighbourhood. There was absolutely no intention to shame or otherwise punish the family concerned.

Handling anti-social behaviour as a landlord is a highly complex issue. Our approach is recognised across the UK as representing best practice.

In this case we simply informed a community that we had resolved a very difficult problem they had raised with us over many months.

The leaflet was a signal to them that we were upholding their right to live in peace and enjoy their homes.

This is something people are entitled to know.