Anti-social behaviour is defined by Barnet Homes as:

  • Personal threats that are deliberately targeted at a particular individual or group
  • Public nuisance – where an individual or group causes trouble, annoyance, inconvenience, offence or suffering to people in the local community rather than targeted at a particular individual or group
  • Environmental nuisance such as graffiti, damage to buildings and structures

The below list are commonly reported issues that Barnet Homes do not define as anti-social behaviour. However, they may be investigated through our neighbourhood management strategy:

  • people walking across wooden floors whilst wearing shoes
  • washing machine noise/vibration (unless late at night and repeated)
  • vacuum cleaner noise
  • mowing lawns
  • playing football outside
  • children playing/arguing outside
  • cooking smells
  • family lifestyle e.g. talking in gardens, noise when children come home from school, differing lifestyles between younger and older residents, friction between day and night workers
  • overgrown hedges and gardens
  • DIY work
  • occasional events
  • General household noise
    – e.g. BBQs, celebrations, special occasions

If you refer noise nuisance from your neighbour such as laminate flooring or children playing ball games, it may be referred to your Neighbourhood Housing Officer in specific circumstances, such as a high number of complaints being received by surrounding neighbours, vulnerability of the complainant or the volume of the noise reported.

Click here to download our guide to dealing with anti-social behaviour.

What to do

If you wish to report ASB, you should call the Customer Contact Team on 020 8080 6587  who will complete a questionnaire called an ASB triage. If the ASB triage identifies the issue you are reporting is ASB, it will be referred to the Anti-social behaviour officer in the Housing Management Service who will contact you to complete a more in-depth questionnaire and who will be able to advise you further.

If it is not identified as ASB, the Customer Contact Team officer will provide advice and signpost you to the relevant team where necessary (e.g. Environmental Health).

You can also use our Dear Neighbour cards if you do not feel comfortable speaking to a neighbour face-to-face. Click here to download one.

Report a problem

Please contact us about any environmental issues or damage.

If you are calling about an abandoned car, please give the registration, colour and make of the vehicle, along with its precise location.

Please also let us know the precise location for any dumped materials, vandalism or graffiti, and tell us whether graffiti is offensive.

If you know who has dumped rubbish, please tell us so that we can charge them for removing it or consider legal action.

We have successfully prosecuted a number of people for dumping and flytipping on our estates.

Environmental issues

There are some incidents that should be referred to Environmental Health at Barnet Council to investigate. This includes;

  • Littering and fly-tipping on private land
  • Noise from parties, music, DIY, TV and radio, musical instruments
  • Noisy or stray animals
  • Noise from air conditioning, extraction and ventilation systems
  • Noise from fireworks
  • noise from business deliveries and collections
  • Noise from building works
  • Alarms
  • Noise from buskers/street musicians

Environmental issues can be reported here https://www.barnet.gov.uk/environmental-problems/report-environmental-problem

Dog fouling, fly-tipping and littering on a public highway should be reported to the Community Safety Team, who use environmental enforcement officers from the third-party specialist Kingdom Service Group to issue Fixed Penalty Notices to anyone caught committing an environmental crime. For more information visit: https://www.barnet.gov.uk/fpn

Please note that The Barnet Group (Barnet Homes and Opendoor Homes) or the Environmental Health team at the London Borough of Barnet do NOT deal with the following as part of our anti-social behaviour procedure, however, may be reviewed as part of neighbourhood management strategy:

  • Noise from children playing
  • Personal differences/family disputes
  • Disagreements about parking
  • Civil disputes such as boundary issues
  • People gathering socially
  • One-off incidents about noise disturbance
  • Living or domestic noises, includes:
  • Banging doors
  • Conversation heard through walls or floors
  • Neighbours walking around their home
  • Noises travelling through ceilings or walls due to poor insulation or laminate flooring
  • Normal domestic activity such as vacuuming or using washing machines
  • Normal vehicle noise

Hate Crime

Hate crimes are any crimes that are targeted at a person because of hostility or prejudice about their race, gender or people with disabilities. By reporting an incident that happens to you or even that you witness, you could be a part of preventing hate crime from escalating or happening to someone else.

What is a hate crime?

Hate crimes are any crimes that are targeted at a person because of hostility or prejudice towards that person’s:

  • disability
  • race or ethnicity
  • religion or belief
  • sexual orientation
  • transgender identity

How can I report a hate crime?

As well as reporting incidents directly to the police, you can report hate crime online using the True Vision website.

Crimestoppers

You can also contact Crimestoppers to report hate crime on 0800 555111 or visit their website.

Useful documents

 


 

Community Trigger

What is the Community Trigger

If you’ve reported instances of anti-social behaviour to the police, council, or Barnet Homes or another agency but the problem is still continuing, you can apply for the Community Trigger.

The Community Trigger process enables victims of anti-social behaviour (ASB), to request a review of their case where persistently reported problems have not been addressed.

Community Trigger explained

The Community Trigger aims to:

  • support victims and communities
  • reduce the number of repeat victims of anti-social behaviour.

It gives you the right to call for the Barnet Community Safety Partnership (BSCP) to work together to review the problem and devise an action plan to resolve it.

Please use the following link to access further information via the London Borough of Barnet Website: Community Trigger | Barnet Council

Who can use the Community Trigger

The victim or another person acting on their behalf (such as a carer or family member, Member of Parliament or councillor) can apply for Barnet’s Community Trigger to operate.

The victim can be an individual, a business or a community group.

You cannot use the Community Trigger to:

  • report general acts of crime, including hate crime.
  • replace individual organisations’ complaints procedures.
  • if you have an ongoing complaint that is being dealt with by the Council, police or registered housing provider.

Note: It does not replace your right to complain to the Local Authority Ombudsman or Independent Police Complaints Commission if you are unhappy about the service you have been provided by an individual officer or organisation.

Criteria for the Community Trigger

The Community Trigger can be used when:

  • You have made three reports to either the council, police or registered housing provider about the same issue in the last six months and no action has been taken

or

  • Five individuals have separately reported about the same issue in the last six months and no action has been taken.

Please note that the definition of ‘no action has been taken’ is defined as:

  • the reported problems have not been acknowledged i.e. no one has contacted the victim to advise what action would be taken
  • the reported problems have not been appropriately investigated by the relevant authorities
  • the victim’s vulnerability and/or the potential for harm has not been considered and this has affected the potential service delivery
  • no action has been taken because information has not been shared between partners and this has affected potential service delivery.

If you don’t meet the Community Trigger criteria

If this is the first time you are reporting an issue or concern about anti-social behaviour, or you don’t meet the criteria for another reason, you can report your concerns in the following ways:

  • contact Barnet Police on 101
  • report the issue directly to your housing office or housing association if you are a tenant of a social landlord
  • contact London Borough of Barnet Community Safety Team on 020 8359 7816

Apply for the Community Trigger

You can:

Telephone: 020 8359 7816

Email: BarnetCST@barnet.gov.uk

Or download an application form below:

Community Trigger application form

Information needed when applying to the Community Trigger

You will need to provide details of each time you have complained, to whom (name, organisation and/or incident reference number) and information about the anti-social behaviour.

After your application

We will respond to your application within 2-3 days

If your application meets the criteria, all the appropriate Barnet Safer Community Partnership organisations will meet to discuss your complaint and consider what actions have been taken. The group will review how the partners have responded and make recommendations on how the problem can be resolved. It will aim to resolve the problem within 24 working days.

If you are unhappy with the Partnership response you can appeal by writing to:

Community Safety Team
2 Bristol Avenue
Colindale
NW9 4EW

Email: BarnetCST@barnet.gov.uk

The team will arrange a review of the decision by a Deputy Director (or equivalent in a partner organisation). Their decision is final

 Remember: In an emergency, always call 999.  If the problem is less urgent, please call the police on 101