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.

Noise nuisances

Barnet Homes are only responsible for investigating noise nuisances caused by our tenants and leaseholders. Examples of noise nuisances which we investigate include: loud music, noise from parties, dogs barking, noises caused by laminate flooring and incidents of screaming and shouting. If we identify there to be a statutory noise nuisance caused by one of our residents, we will work with our partners at the London Borough of Barnet to investigate this further.

*Please note that there is a limitation to the noise nuisances which we will investigate. For example, we will not investigate one off incidents or reports of noise from children playing during the hours of 8am to 11pm.

If your neighbours cause persistent and unreasonable noise nuisance and all attempts to resolve this informally have failed, then we may be able to act. Once you report a noise nuisance to us, you will be asked to complete a diary sheet, which can be found here.

To report a noise nuisance, please contact our Customer Contact Team at talktous@barnethomes.org or call 0208 080 6587 (phone lines are open between 8am and 5pm Monday to Friday).

Dog fouling 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

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

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