Community Safety
As a tenant you may at sometime encounter a problem with another resident, their children or visitors to their property. We believe that everyone has a right to enjoy living in their property free from harassment, nuisance, annoyance and anti-social behaviour. People should not have to suffer anti-social behaviour and we are committed to dealing with nuisance issues.
In this section you can find out
- What to do if you are suffering from anti-social behaviour
- What is mediation and what do the Maidstone Mediation Service do?
- What to expect if you contact the Community Safety team
- Recording incidents and keeping an incident diary
- Legal action and being a witness
- Other remedies to tackle anti-social behaviour
View our Community Safety leaflet
What is anti-social behaviour?
Anti-social behaviour can take many forms, for example- abusive or insulting words or behaviour
- harassment on the grounds of age, gender, religion, race, colour, appearance, disability, sexual orientation, cultural background
- intimidation/assault
- violence or threats of violence to any person (including domestic violence)
- noise
- handling, using and selling drugs
- using or allowing the premises to be used for illegal or immoral purposes, such as prostitution and handling or storing stolen goods
- rubbish dumping and misuse of communal areas e.g. car repairs
- any nuisance or annoyance caused by pets or other animals including barking dogs and fouling
Both tenants and leaseholders are responsible for ensuring their families and friends do not act in an anti-social manner.
The Trust is committed to promoting peaceful communities.We will take action against people if their behaviour is unacceptable and causes distress to others. As members of the Safer Maidstone Partnership we work closely with other organisations such as the Police, Social Services, Probation, Mediation and Mental Health services to resolve issues of anti-social behaviour.
Contacting the Community Safety Team
If you, or the person causing the problem is a Maidstone Housing Trust tenant, you should contact the Area Housing Office first. An officer will discuss the problem with you and take as much information as possible. This can be done at the time you call, or an appointment will be made for you to meet with a Community Safety Officer. The officer will tell you whether any action can be taken and if so, what it might be. This action will then be agreed with you.
The action may involve some of the things you have already considered or done, but these details will form an important part of the case.
It does not only rest with Maidstone Housing Trust to sort out your complaints about anti-social behaviour. We need your assistance and your willingness to be a witness if the need arises. We will also ask others who may have seen incidents to be witnesses on your behalf. We will ask you to keep a record of what is going on and keep this on diary sheets that we provide. This is so we are better able to assess the situation and the options we have to deal with it.
There are no easy or very quick solutions to these types of problems, but whatever action is planned will be fully discussed with you.
The Community Safety Officer will deal with the matter fairly. We cannot automatically assume that your neighbour is causing a nuisance simply because a complaint has been made. Part of any solution will usually involve us talking to your neighbour about the complaint to get their view of the problem. If you do not want us to do this, then the action we can take will be extremely limited. In some cases it will mean that we can do nothing.
date published: 24/01/2007