It’s ‘Victims Day’ today in ASB Awareness Week and Bernicia tenant Joanne tells us her story.
With the expert help of our Safer Communities Officer Nigel Dowd, Joanne and her neighbours worked together to provide evidence and stop the anti-social behaviour of a tenant blighting the quality of their lives through noise and disruption.
Visitors to his Hartlepool property in the early hours and finally intimidating behaviour to neighbours over an 18 month period led Joanne to contact Bernicia’s Safer Communities Team to seek help for a problem that had become intolerable.
Joanne, 57, said: “The only way I can describe it was the music at a weekend was absolutely booming. That could be at all hours.
“There was a lass who was staying who was quite friendly at first. It then became a lot of noise.
“It was awful. People were always coming around knocking. There was a buzzer system, for a normal person you’d just press the buzzer.
“It was always being broken and I know Bernicia was repairing it every week but the doors were metal and you’d get people banging on the metal door, middle of the night, two, three o’clock in the morning, shouting for him, shouting for her.
“It was like a living nightmare.
“It was awful, I was getting no sleep. I was ill, I lost weight, it was horrible.”
She added: “It made me feel like I wanted to leave, but then I thought ‘why should I leave?’ My flat, it’s perfect, there’s nothing about it that I would change, I’ve got a lovely garden and I just thought ‘no, why should I move?’
“My flat is my palace, I love it. If all the hassle and noise carried on I would have left, but I love the place and now I’m just not moving. I love it there and it’s a really, really nice community.”
Joanne took the decision to call Bernicia and report the anti-social behaviour.
“All I did was phone the normal Bernicia number and spoke to a very nice lady and then Nigel called me back,” she said.
“And from that day on me and Nigel have been working to make things better. You’d find it hard to find another social housing company that care about their tenants like Bernicia, honest to God.”
Nigel said: “I explained the anti-social behaviour process and Joanne grasped straight away that it’s an escalation process to try and be able to persuade the perpetrator to amend his ways.
“If we go down the enforcement route, we have to be able to demonstrate in court that we have given the perpetrator every chance.
“She was so good to work with. We received the initial complaint and spoke to the alleged perpetrator and try to reason with him by email, a phone call or a visit to say a concern has been raised to begin with.
“A lot of the time in our job, that is enough to stop the issue. But in certain circumstances, it falls on deaf ears or there’s broken promises.
“It was a very complex situation with both injunctions as both people had complex mental health issues.”
Nigel worked with Cleveland Police and Hartlepool Borough Council to collate evidence to seek enforcement action.
The civil court issued two injunctions – an injunction was awarded against the male with prohibitions preventing him from discussing the injunction with any of the people named or intimidating witnesses.
It also prevented him from making unnecessary or excessive noise and acting in a manner that would cause or likely to cause nuisance, alarm or distress to others in the local area.
A possession order for his property also runs alongside the injunction. His home can be repossessed if he breaches the terms of his injunction within the next year.
A second injunction for the woman visitor includes an exclusion zone with power of arrest attached, preventing her from entering an area around the estate with the power of arrest if she does so.
Nigel said: “It was so easy to work with Joanne, she had a common sense approach and realistic expectations right from the off about what the process would be to tackle this.
“When we work together in partnership like this with tenants then issues can be dealt with sooner.
“It was a case of letting Joanne know that there was somebody there, there was somebody listening and because of her proactivity we were really able to help her.
“Anti-social behaviour can destroy neighbourhoods, it can destroy communities. I’m a firm believer in strength in numbers.
“Talk to your neighbours, they are probably suffering the same thing if it’s as bad as you say it is. Other witnesses provided supporting evidence to confirm Joanne’s accounts which added weight to the case we were able to present in court.”
Bernicia is committed to tackling anti-social behaviour in the properties and communities where our tenants live.
To report it call 0344 800 3800 or fill in the form on our website here: https://www.bernicia.com/help-and-support/keeping-you-safe/your-safety/anti-social-behaviour/
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