Read our case study relating to antisocial behaviour
Key topic: Antisocial behaviour
Award: Written apology + £100
Resolved by early resolution
despite reporting the anti-social and criminal behaviour of the neighbour's tenants at the beginning of last year, the situation has got worse due to the agent’s lack of action
no adequate response or corrective action has been taken and there have been delays in responses
the tenants have subjected the complainant to severe verbal abuse, including false and defamatory accusations
this was reported to the who owner of the property who described this as ‘disgusting’
one tenant had been referred to Checkpoint Cymru and the police are taking the other tenant to court
they are claiming a full explanation of what has been done so far, and an immediate resolution, including the enforcement in line with the tenancy agreement and policies on anti-social behaviour to prevent any more distress
the complainant was previously provided with a full response and has not made them aware that this was insufficient
actions relating to the complaint are ongoing across the team and will continue until the complaint is resolved
the agent has discussed this with the team and is in touch with the neighbouring landlord to escalate and resolve the issues in the next few weeks
Email communication
All we can investigate is what action and service our agent member provided and whether it is reasonable.
It is outside our authority to direct any action against the neighbours tenants as this is the neighbouring landlord’s responsibility. The evidence showed that:
the issues were raised with the agent multiple times and,
while some action was taken, the complainant still had some outstanding questions and queries
Due to the delays in response times, the agent was to:
send the complainant a meaningful written apology for the poor communication and pay £100 for the distress and inconvenience
to provide a written response to the complainant’s questions which were:
> since the complaint was first raised, what action has been taken?
> were the neighbouring tenants reminded of the antisocial behaviour policy in their tenancy agreement at the start of the tenant, and if so, what steps have been taken to follow this up?
> were these tenants issued with any warnings or were measures put in place to address their behaviour last year?
> what action does the agent intend taking to resolve the outstanding issues?
Follow our top tips to prevent this:
Make sure you respond to queries you get from direct and neighbouring consumers
Always keep your landlord clients (if you are an agent) fully informed as their tenant deserves peaceful and quiet enjoyment of the property
Try to resolve issues as quickly as possible to prevent consumers from making a repeat complaint
Keep all communications clear and send all updates and responses in a reasonable time
