Anti social behaviour: what you can do

Where GOV.UK sends you

Your council

report it to your council if it affects your local area

• Report it toYour council's own website. The list GOV.UK gives of what councils take includes noise nuisance, abandoned vehicles, fly-tipping, dog mess in public areas, discarded needles, vandalism and graffiti. Check your council's site for what else it takes.
• Call 999 instead ifYou or someone else is in immediate danger, or the crime is in progress. If it is not an emergency, the police number is 101.
• They will ask youWhat happened, where it happened, who was involved and what they did, whether anyone else saw it, the date and time, and whether it has happened before.
• Anti-social behaviour case review, formerly the Community TriggerThe threshold can be no higher than three qualifying complaints, and an area may set it lower. A complaint qualifies if it was made within one month of the behaviour, and the application has to be made within six months of the complaint, unless the local review procedures specify different periods. Where somebody has made several complaints, the bodies decide which of them qualify. Even short of the threshold they can still take the persistence, the harm and how adequate the response was into account. Check your own council's published procedure, and apply through the council or your local police.
• If it is your own tenantGOV.UK's landlord route covers council and housing association homes. It does not give a private landlord a reporting route, so what you have is the tenancy agreement and the same council and police routes as anybody else. Write to the tenant and keep the letter. If the behaviour may be connected to a disability, including a mental health condition, taking action against the tenant can amount to discrimination arising from disability under section 15 of the Equality Act 2010 unless what you do is a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim. Take advice before you act.

The council and the police both ask for evidence, and a diary of dates, times and the impact is the first thing on GOV.UK's list, so it is worth starting one before you report rather than after.