We don’t always get along with everyone we live near. We sometimes have disputes with our neighbours about anything from too much noise to problems with parking, rubbish and pets etc. This page tells you about your rights in relation to problems with your neighbours and gives you practical advice for dealing with these problems.
The Housing Service can only take action where a complaint is about a council tenant. If you have a complaint about a tenant of registered social landlord (for example, a housing association) you should contact the landlord. If you have a complaint about an owner-occupier or a private landlord, you should contact the Antisocial Behaviour Co-ordinator. Or you can use the antisocial behaviour online report form or you can phone the antisocial behaviour helpline. This helpline is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Wherever possible we will try and help tenants and their neighbours to resolve disputes informally. However in more serious cases, where a tenant or visitor is responsible for persistent nuisance, annoyance or harassment, we will take action under their tenancy agreement or use other legal measures available. In some situations, we won’t be able to take any action. For example, where a tenant’s behaviour is not unreasonable or they are not breaking their tenancy agreement.
If you would like more information, please refer to our Neighbour Disputes and Anti Social Behaviour Policy.
When you speak to your neighbour try to explain why their behaviour is causing you a problem.
When talking to the person you have a problem with, follow these tips:
If the situation does not improve or if you think that it is too serious for you to deal with, contact you local area housing office. We will investigate your complaint and deal with it in confidence.
What the Housing Service can do if you have a problem with a neighbour
We can:
We cannot:
Our policy on neighbour problems
We are committed to tackling neighbour problems. We will investigate every report of neighbour dispute and antisocial behaviour. We will give advice or take action where necessary. However, we cannot get involved where the problem is simply about differing life styles of tenants. You must be prepared to tolerate normal domestic noise from your neighbours.
Our staff will stress a conciliatory approach wherever possible, avoiding confrontation. But in serious cases we will take action immediately. We will show by our actions that we will not tolerate antisocial behaviour. We will use whatever means are necessary, including Acceptable Behaviour Contract and Antisocial Behaviour Orders, to deal with such behaviour.
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What will happen when you contact us?
We will treat your complaint confidentially. We will not reveal your identity to your neighbour or to anyone else at this stage, unless you wish us to do so. We will then log your complaint categorise it as follows:
|
Category |
Target timescale set |
Examples of complaint |
|
Category D Minor breach of tenancy conditions |
10 working days |
|
|
Category C Disputes solely between two neighbours |
10 working days |
|
|
Category B Antisocial behaviour, where the behaviour is of a serious and persistent nature, affecting one tenant or a group of tenants |
5 working days |
|
|
Category A Severe antisocial behaviour, where the involvement of the police is necessary |
2 working days |
|
We will write to you confirming we have received your complaint. We will investigate the complaint and where necessary an area housing officer will interview you, either at the office or at your home, whichever is more convenient for you. You will be able to discuss the problem and hopefully agree jointly on a plan of action. This will include things that you can do and what we can do to try and help.
For example:
We will only take action after we have investigated your complaint and found it justified and have proof that the tenant, member of the household, a lodger or visitor has broken the terms and conditions of the tenancy agreement. The action that we take will reflect the category awarded to the complaint you reported.
We will tell your neighbour that they must stop causing a nuisance or annoying their neighbours. If this does not solve the problem and your neighbour ignores our warnings we will take more action against them. This may include legal action. In many cases legal action will not be appropriate and we will make every effort to resolve a dispute without going to court.
In some case we may be unable to take any further action, if for example, there is no evidence to support your complaint or the behaviour is not a breach of the tenancy agreement.
In most cases legal action will not be appropriate and we will make every effort to resolve a dispute without going to court. However, in some cases we can and will apply to the court for one or more of the following remedies:
However, all these remedies are granted at the discretion of the Sheriff. This means that we must provide enough supporting evidence to the court, so that the Sheriff considers it reasonable to grant them. To be successful, court action might also involve further investigation by other council departments (such as Environmental Health) or other agencies (such as the Police).
An interdict is an order from the Sheriff Court to prevent a named person or persons repeating certain nuisances (e.g. acts of violence or harassment). Interdicts can only be used to stop a person from doing something, it cannot be used to make a person do something, such as make them clean the stairs or keep their garden tidy. As well as the council, any individual person can also apply for an interdict. In certain serious and urgent circumstances the Sheriff may, grant an ‘Interim Interdict’ until he/she decides whether or not to grant a full interdict. The council can apply for an interdict as an alternative to, or in addition to, seeking an order for eviction.
If your neighbour continues to carry on with the activity, they are classed as being ‘in breach of interdict’. This is considered as contempt of court and your neighbour could be liable to a fine, or possibly imprisonment. However, the council will have to go back to court again, to prove our case to the Sheriff.
Antisocial Behaviour Orders (ASBO’s)
Antisocial behaviour orders (ASBO’s) can be used to tackle serious antisocial behaviour, such as drug dealing, unprovoked assault, severe harassment, persistent vandalism, serious damage to property, racial harassment etc.
Like interdicts these orders try to prevent a person from doing something specific, which is causing alarm or distress in the community. ASBO’s can be taken against anyone over the age of 16, living in the Moray Council area, who commits serious anti social behaviour, such as those mentioned above, on at least two separate occasions.
N.B. We will only consider making an application for an ASBO, when all other means of trying to resolve the problem, short of eviction, have failed.
If someone, who has been served with an ASBO, breaches the order, the police may arrest them and they may be liable to a fine or term of imprisonment.
If all other attempts of resolving the problem with your neighbour have failed, we can apply to the court for a decree to evict the tenant, who is causing the problem or nuisance. The process of seeking a decree for eviction can take some time and usually involves people giving evidence in court. In all cases the Sheriff decides whether to grant a decree for eviction. Under the Housing (Scotland) Act 2001, we must show the Sheriff that it is ‘reasonable’ to evict the tenant. Therefore, we need strong supporting evidence from neighbour(s) and also from other agencies and council departments, such as the police and environmental health.
If the Sheriff grants a decree for eviction for antisocial behaviour, we will not offer the problem tenant another Secure Tenancy with the Moray Council, within a three year period of the date of the decree. We may however offer a Short Scottish Secure Tenancy, which gives them fewer rights and less security of tenure.
If you want more information about antisocial behaviour please refer to our Neighbour Disputes and Anti Social Behaviour Policy or contact your area housing office.