Issues with Anti-Social Behaviour and Empty Flats at Goldacre Housing Association

Goldacre Housing Association is facing issues with anti-social behaviour and empty flats, leading to dissatisfaction among residents. This report discusses the problems and suggests an action plan to address them, including forming an inspection team, developing a management team to monitor anti-social behaviour, and taking legal action against perpetrators.

Housing Report

Table of Contents
Introduction..................................................................................................3
Discussion....................................................................................................3
Residents are dissatisfied with the way that anti-social behaviour is
addressed...................................................................................................3
Empty and boarded flats are making the estate unattractive and attracting
vandals.......................................................................................................4
SMART Plan.............................................................................................5
Conclusion....................................................................................................6
References....................................................................................................7

Introduction
From: The Policy Officer, (Mr.BM)
To: The Board of Goldacre Housing Association
Goldacre Housing Association is one of the renowned housing companies that provide
housing facilities at affordable price. This housing association aims to ensure post-purchase
satisfaction of the residents and those leasing property. It has a dedicated team of professionals
capable of responding to the issues and concerns of the clients in a professional way. Goldacre does
not work merely as a housing agent, but also offers a wide range of apartments and villas to the
clients to select from along with full-time property management services. In case the clients face
any kind of problem they have to report it to the management of Goldacre Housing Association. Its
contact centers, official website, and social media website provide an effective interactive platform
to the clients where they can communicate their concerns at a personal level and site engineers can
be notified for any kind of repair required. In case the problems communicated are widespread and
of recurring nature, the residents are invited to a public meeting where their problems are discussed
in detail and the best possible solutions are provided on the spot.
Proper maintenance and care are essential for ensuring the houses and apartments are
attractive. At the same time, it helps in keeping the apartments and houses in good condition so that
they do not remain empty and thereby, minimizing the chances of vandalizing (Schroder 2013).
This includes cleaning the halls, servicing sewer and water lines, cleaning the drainage system,
repairing electric lines and maintaining security system etc (Black 2012). ‘Goldacre Housing
Association' continues to inspect the condition of its houses and apartments and the issues faced by
the residents/clients.
Discussion
Residents are dissatisfied with the way that anti-social behaviour is addressed
One of the key reasons behind the dissatisfaction of the residents with the way anti-social
behaviour is addressed is the unsupportive behaviour and attitude of the management of Goldacre
Housing Association. Most of the team members are not taking any interest in communicate the
issues faced by the tenants and thus, it is difficult for the management to take any initiative to solve
the issues. This indicates that most of the time the complaints received by the members from the
housing offices are not escalated to the relevant departments and thus, their concerns often remain
unaddressed. Anti-social behaviour is a term used for a wide range of issues with respect to the

incidents that take place in everyday life and situations such as noise, vandalism, rubbish dumping
in appropriate areas and harassment etc. The term anti-social behaviour (ASB) is defined as any
activity that causes distress or harassment to the individuals or the community as a whole (Housing
Ombudsman, 2013). Empowering the landlords is essential. The Goldacre Housing Association
should have proper policies and procedures in place to help the landlords deal with the reports of
anti-social behaviour. In case the tenants are facing any issue they should contact their landlords
and ask the way to report the issue while identifying the actions to be taken by the landlords. The
landlords should ask for gathering evidences on anti-social behaviour the tenants are facing. For
example they can be asked for completing an ‘incident diary' where the incidents of the nuisance
behaviour would be recorded in detail. This would be helpful in determining the action(s) to be
taken in order to solve the problem. Social landlords have a wide range of methods for dealing with
anti-social behaviour. In case the tenants are facing low level of anti-social behaviour like noise,
parking disagreements, pets roaming in communal areas and littering etc, the landlord should be
given the right to:
 Provide mediation between relevant parties
 Develop "good neighbour agreements" between the parties
 Design an effective action plan with the relevant parties for addressing the anti-social
behaviour
 Issue a warning letter to the alleged perpetrator
In case the anti-social behaviour is more serious in nature, the landlord should be given the right to:
 Report the incident to the local authority and police and ask them to take immediate
action(s)
 Go to the court to evict the one behaving in an anti-social way
 Apply to the court for issuing an anti-social behaviour order or any other injunction
Landlords should seek to have a person evicted for anti-social behaviour if the behaviour is very
serious and persistent and all other available interventions have failed and if substantial evidences
of such behaviour can be provided in the court. At the same time, the tenants should be given the
right to report any such behaviour directly to the police if they find it of extremely serious nature
and any kind of delay cannot be accepted.
Empty and boarded flats are making the estate unattractive and attracting
vandals
Overcrowded flats affect the outlook of the property and on the other hand, empty flats often
lead to vandalism. Thus, serving compulsory purchase orders (CPOs) on empty apartments and

houses would be justified where there is no possible scope for using any suitable property as a
house (Macken, Galligan and McGrath, 2013). Before a CPO is confirmed, it should be ensured that
the housing association has taken the necessary steps to bring the property into an acceptable
condition for use. Also, it should be ensured that the reasons for making the CPO justify interfering
with the human rights of those of any individual having interest in the empty property. The
"Housing Act 1985, Section 17" gives the power to the local council to take over land or houses or
any other property in order to enhance the availability of houses or to elevate the quality of the
housing stock. The main use of this power is to gain access to land for housing. This involves
bringing empty property back into use as homes and apartments. The "Housing Act 2004" gives the
right to take out an "empty dwelling management order (EDMO)" to ensure that the empty property
is used for housing (Carr, Cottle and Ormandy, 2008).
EDMOs can be made only on the properties that have been empty for minimum 6 months.
There are two types of EDMO- interim and final. An interim EDMO lasts for minimum 12 months
and a final EDMO can last up to 7, or 14 or 21 years. This act also gives the power to ensure that
the properties are safe and suitable to live in. Helping the government in constructing new houses
and apartments would be beneficial in dealing with overcrowded flats. This is because residents
from the existing flats can be shifted to the newly constructed properties. This would bring a
positive change in the outlook of the flats and would make them look attractive.
SMART Plan
Goldacre Housing Association should conduct an annual general meeting (AGM) within
next 15 working days, where the issues faced by the residents should be discussed in detail. Any
further delay might have a severe outcome that would affect the profitability of the organization. A
separate team should be developed that would be responsible for monitoring anti-social behavior
and taking steps of empty and overloaded flats. This team should be formed within next 7 working
days. It should be made mandatory for the landlords to ensure having an annual inspection
certificate before handing over a property to a tenant or buyer. This inspection should look after the
major systems in the house like electric & water lines, sanitation, and drainage etc. The inspection
should also look at the health and safety of the residents. The association should keep a separate
fund for building or helping the government to build new apartments and houses. This should be
done within next 7 working days. The inspection team developed should be playing an important
role in this context in terms of shifting the residents from the flats to the newly constructed
properties. A strict policy should be formed within next 15 working days to take legal actions
against any person allegedly shown anti-social behaviour. This would help in restricting any

individuals from demonstrating anti-social behaviour and attitude and thereby, elevating the
satisfaction level of the residents.
Action Target Date Responsible
Conduct annual general
meeting (AGM)
Discussion on the issues faced by the
residents
15 days CEO
Form an inspection team Monitoring the suitability of the houses and
apartments where people can stay
6 days Senior
Manager
Develop a management
team
Monitoring anti-social behaviour of the
individuals and take the necessary legal
action
7 days CEO
Separate funding Keeping a dedicated fund from the annual
budget to build new apartments and houses
7 days Financial
manager
Policy development and
implementation
Taking legal actions against the one evicted
for anti-social behaviour
15 days Strategy
manager
Conclusion
Thus, it can be derived from the above discussion that although Goldacre Housing
Association claims to provide affordable houses and apartments to the people in the area, it fails to
solve their concerns and issues. It is more interested in selling properties and encouraging landlords
to offer their properties on rent and lease rather than focusing on the suitability of the properties for
people to live in. The above action plan would be helpful in enhancing the image of the housing
association.

References
Black, S. (2012).Fundamentals of real estate & investment strategies, Morrisville : Lulu Press.
Carr, H., Cottle, S. and Ormandy, D. (2008). Using the Housing Act 2004, Amman: Jordans.
Housing Ombudsman (2013). Tenants' behaviour, [Online], Available: http://www.housing-
ombudsman.org.uk/learning-faqs/factsheets/tenants-behaviour/#.WwO5IzSFPMx [22 May 2018].
Macken, J., Galligan, E. and McGrath, M. (2013) .Compulsory Purchase and Compensation in
Ireland: Law and Practice, London: A&C Black.
Schroder, R. (2013). The Secrets to Renting Your Home the Right Way, Cork, BookBaby.