Reporting and Dealing with Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB)

ASB includes a wide range of unacceptable activity that can negatively impact the lives of many people. It can leave those affected feeling helpless and desperate.

PFH has a key role in creating safe and sustainable communities and we will do all that we can to prevent ASB. We can only achieve this by working with affected residents, perpetrators and also in partnership with other organisations, our residents and the local community.

Anti-Social Behaviour frequently asked questions

We’ve answered some of the most common questions here. If you have a question that we’ve not covered, get in touch.

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Anti-Social Behaviour

Part 1 of the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014, defines ASB as:  

  • conduct that caused, or is likely to cause, harassment, alarm or distress to any person;
  • conduct capable of causing nuisance or annoyance to a person in relation to that person’s occupation of residential premises; or  
  • conduct capable of causing housing-related nuisance or annoyance to any person.  

Examples of ASB are:

  • harassment on the grounds of age, gender, gender reassignment, religion or belief, race, colour, size, appearance, disability, sexual orientation, ability, cultural background, domestic circumstances, illness or lifestyle.  
  • violence or threats of violence to any person.  
  • abuse or insulting words or behaviour.  
  • offensive drunkenness or drug use.  
  • damage or threat of damage to property.
  • writing graffiti and in particular graffiti which is abusive, threatening or insulting.  
  • making unnecessary or excessive noise.  
  • premises being used for illegal or immoral activity, such as prostitution, handling drugs and handling or storing stolen goods.  
  • nuisance or annoyance caused by pets including excessive barking.   
  • fly tipping.
  • inconsiderate parking that causes an obstruction or safety concern.  
  • breach of Local Authority Byelaws such as dog fouling.
  • social media or text abuse .

Not everything that is reported to us is classed as ASB.  We expect our residents to respect other people’s right to their chosen lifestyle and everyday reasonable levels of disturbance. Examples of this are: 

  • people mowing the lawn  
  • people using their vacuums at a reasonable time of the day  
  • people using DIY equipment at a reasonable time of the day  
  • people using washing machines at a reasonable time of day 
  • other sounds of normal day to day living such as opening and closing doors, going up and down the stairs 
  • cooking smells  
  • noise of children playing in or near their home  
  • snoring  
  • babies crying 
  • parking disputes 
  • putting rubbish out on the wrong day 
  • one-off parties such as barbecues, birthdays, Christmas parties providing they don’t cause an unacceptable disturbance 
  • personal differences such as dirty looks 
  • clashes of lifestyle including cultural differences providing this does not include or relate to incidents of hate crime 
  • infrequent / not excessive dog barking 

The above list is not exhaustive.   

Although people should expect to hear a certain amount of noise from their neighbours, they are not expected to have to endure unreasonable and persistent levels of noise nuisance. Some of the examples listed above could become a noise nuisance if they occur regularly late at night or very early in the morning. Cases of noise nuisance may be investigated by PFH and the Local Authority Environmental Health Team to ascertain whether it constitutes a statutory nuisance.  To effectively investigate a report of noise nuisance, affected residents would need to keep a record of the times and frequency of the nuisance and wherever possible, provide recordings using their phones or other devices.  PFH will advise residents further on this.    

PFH are responsible for making sure that we meet the standards expected by our customers, provide a peaceful, quiet and clean environment for people to live, and allow residents who comply with their Licence to live peacefully and free from interference.   

We aim to do this by:  

  • Helping prevent incidents and reoccurrence of ASB;
  • Providing new residents with the RESPECT Charter and displaying it in PFH+ schemes and Pop-Ins;
  • Tailoring our approach to suit the individual needs of residents;
  • Tackling ASB through prevention, early intervention, support and swift enforcement;
  • Removing abusive, threatening, insulting, racist, sexist or homophobic graffiti within 24 hours of an incident being reported; 
  • Working with vulnerable victims and perpetrators, where appropriate;
  • Promoting community responsibility, involvement and a sense of community spirit; 
  • Taking appropriate action against perpetrators of ASB and support them to modify their behaviour;
  • Working with partner agencies to ensure access to the relevant support; and
  • Using legislation and other tools to manage ASB, including sharing information with local partners to ensure the full range of criminal and civil remedies can be pursued.  

We expect all residents, their families and any other person(s) living with them or visitors to their home not to cause a nuisance, disturbance or be involved in any ASB activities.   
Residents must abide by their Licence and any breaches could result in losing their home.   

We expect our residents to: 

  • Report all incidences of bad behaviour including ASB, harassment, domestic abuse to PFH as soon as possible.
  • Immediately report crimes, threats, racial abuse, acts of violence to the police. 
  • Respect other resident’s rights to their chosen lifestyle and everyday reasonable level of disturbance.   
  • Live by the principles within the RESPECT Charter.   
  • Work with PFH and other agencies to tackle ASB.  We may ask you to do this in various ways such as: 
    • Keeping diary sheets of the problems you are experiencing. 
    • Contacting Environmental Health directly if your neighbours are causing you a noise nuisance.
    • Taking part in independent mediation.
    • Providing witness statements or act as a witness should this be necessary. 
    • Attending court if necessary.   

If following an investigation regarding ASB we determine that the complainant has made false or misleading reports / statements to cause distress or waste staff time, PFH will take appropriate and proportionate action against them. 

Anonymous ASB reports cannot go through PFH’s usual ASB procedures, but PFH will still investigate and log the issue.   

PFH defines vexatious behaviour as a complainant who institutes a complaint without sufficient grounds and is knowingly or deliberately acting in such a way as to cause distress, providing false or misleading information, serving only to cause disruption or annoyance without proper or justified cause. Appropriate and proportionate action will be taken against the person. 

PFH will also take action where we believe that a complainants’ behaviour is unreasonable and they are pursuing the matter vexatiously or unreasonably. Or if hostile, abusive or offensive language has been used against staff / customers which has caused distress or the complainant has demonstrated an unreasonable fixation on an individual such as a member of staff. 

As a registered provider we have a duty to share information with the relevant agencies as set out by the Crime and Disorder Act 1998. This will be done in accordance with GDPR and any information sharing protocols that are in place. 

How to report Incidents of Anti-Social Behaviour 

If, after reading the above information, you feel you have a genuine ASB issue to report, you can do so by contacting us using the following methods: 
Telephone: (01482) 223783 
Email: info@pfh.org.uk 
Via your PFH Connect tablet 
By post or in person to Pickering and Ferens Homes, 7 Beacon Way, Hull, HU3 4AE.