Resolving Antisocial Behaviour 


What happens next? 
Your housing officer will record and investigate the complaint. This may include contacting other neighbours to see if they have also been affected.  Your housing officer will not tell your neighbours who has made the complaint.  Your housing officer may also contact anyone else involved in the complaint such as Police Scotland or Antisocial Behaviour Noise Service. 

Your housing officer will contact the person reported and take appropriate action to stop the antisocial behaviour. Please be assured your housing officer will not tell the person who has made the complaint. Sometimes your housing officer may involve other statutory or voluntary agencies to provide additional help and support.  This can be for you or for the person to help stop their antisocial behaviour.     
How long will it take?
Your housing officer will assess and categorise complaints. Staff must respond and take action under our antisocial behaviour policy by the following timescales: 

Category A, Very Serious Complaints - actioned in 2 working days 
  • drug dealing
  • criminal behaviour (violence / threats of violence, fire raising, housebreaking and harrassment etc.) 

Category B, Serious Complaints  - actioned within 5 working days
  • aggressive or abusive behaviour 
  • frequent disturbances 
  • persistent noise 
  • vandalism
  • substance abuse 
  • verbal or written harrassment 

Category C, Nuisance Complaints - actioned within 7 working days
  • excessive noise 
  • noisy party 
  • litter dumping
  • control of pets / dog fouling 
  • boundary disputes 
  • untidy gardens 
  • children causing a disturbance 
These timescales are for your housing officer to respond and action your complaint only.  This does not mean the antisocial behaviour will stop in these timescales.  Often however the antisocial behaviour does stop once action is taken by your housing officer. 

What happens if the antisocial behaviour doesn’t stop?
Depending on the extent or seriousness of the antisocial behaviour, you housing officer will work with senior staff, Police Scotland, other relevant agencies and our Solicitor.  We can issue warnings and, as a last resort, take legal action. This can include court action to seek eviction. 

Why can’t you just move or evict the person? 
You or your family suffering from antisocial behaviour is unacceptable.  But just like you, your neighbour has a Scottish Secure Tenancy Agreement. This means only a Sheriff can terminate the tenancy if your neighbour wishes to remain in their home. Just like you, we have a responsibility to help and support your neighbour.  Just like you, we have a responsibility to do all we can to help them remain in their home if that is their choice. 

But just like you, they also have a responsibility to not act in an antisocial manner.  If they do, despite our warnings and providing all possible help and support, we will take appropriate action as previously outlined. 

Why can’t you just move or evict the person now?
We can only begin legal and court action after all other warnings have been issued and help and support provided to your neighbour to stop their antisocial behaviour.  This can take some time. 

If we do take legal action to seek eviction, this process can take many months before your neighbour is evicted. This can be even longer if the Sheriff decides to give your neighbour another chance.  It may not happen at all if the Sheriff refuses to grant us the power to proceed with an eviction.  To avoid such decisions by the Sheriff, it is very important we take all the other steps before legal action.  This helps us prove to the Sheriff we had done everything possible before taking the last resort of legal action.  

If your neighbour does choose to move and we do all we can to assist, it could be some time before suitable accommodation becomes available and they move out.  They may also not be able to move or even be allowed to move for different reasons.