Antisocial behaviour: 'Every night there is banging on our walls'
"I was physically sick, and we are all mentally exhausted – every hour of every night there is banging on our walls."Sarah*, a mother of two, said she had endured persistent antisocial behaviour from her next-door neighbours for more than two years, and her landlord, Birmingham City Council, is ignoring her pleas for help.The local authority said it had established a new set of standards in dealing with antisocial behaviour and added: "It is an issue we take seriously and want to improve upon."
Living in a semi-detached property in a Birmingham suburb, Sarah told the BBC it was as though the walls between the neighbouring properties were paper thin.The local authority had sent warning letters to neighbours, but the noise continues, Sarah said, and some of the wall has crumbled away as a result of continued banging.All of this comes at a point Birmingham is seeing large numbers of complaints about antisocial behaviour.We have obtained figures through a Freedom of Information request that show that since 2022, the council has received and investigated 16,575 complaints about antisocial behaviour in council properties.However, numbers have fallen from 5,491 in 2022 to 4,624 last year.
Sarah's neighbours were served injunctions in 2023, preventing them from harassing or abusing her family, and it also applies to threats made against council employees who visit the property.Breaking down in tears, Sarah told the BBC her son had been self-harming due to the continued anxiety."All I've had from the city council is constant excuses for my neighbour. We submitted CCTV footage, and they told us it's 'normal noise'."I feel like they're afraid to go any further with it, and I can't understand why when I'm literally on my knees begging them to help us."Sarah's experience is not in the minority.The figures we have obtained also show that since 2022, only 27 tenants have been evicted, but the authority said it did not currently categorise antisocial behaviour as a reason for eviction.The data was finally released to us last week, after several months of delays.The Information Commissioner's Office subsequently found that the council had breached the Freedom of Information Act by failing to release the data to the BBC within the 20-day time limit.
Preet Kaur Gill, Labour MP for Edgbaston, said she had seen a big increase in council tenants contacting her over antisocial behaviour and is urging the authority to review its response."The council does have an effective policy, so it needs to make sure it's compliant with it."We have to look at how on earth we have got to a situation where we have around 5,000 cases of antisocial behaviour every single year. "We only have about 100 housing officers, so how will they cope with that level of demand?" The MP also said there should be a fresh look at how tenants gather evidence.She is concerned tenants have lost faith in housing officers and are considering CCTV cameras trained on neighbouring properties to gather evidence of wrongdoing.
Paul*, who lives in sheltered accommodation, contacted us to say he had "hit a brick wall" where he could not get help after complaining about a neighbour's antisocial behaviour for two years.He described verbal abuse from a female resident, including threats of violence, while car headlights had been deliberately beamed through his window.He has recorded some of the behaviour on a CCTV camera, and his neighbour has been handed a community order, the BBC understands, but like Sarah, he said the behaviour was ongoing."I'm not sleeping or eating properly; I have a heart condition, and it's making life a misery," he said."The authorities, I think, should have acted a lot quicker than they have done over the past two years because they've practically done nothing."I don't want [my neighbour] to get into trouble, really, I think they need help, but if they carry on, they need to be moved."
Paul and Sarah are among a growing number of tenants who are contacting me, suggesting the council is failing to resolve neighbourhood disputes.A council spokesperson decided not to respond to Sarah and Paul's cases but instead said: "We now have 102 housing officers who deal with reports of antisocial behaviour, who will… visit and work with tenants and also make visits to perpetrators… in an attempt to find a resolution."The council aims to deal with antisocial behaviour by using a range of tools and powers. This includes mediation, as well as eviction, which is used as a last resort when all other solutions have been tried."Sarah said the authority had a duty to ensure its tenants could feel safe in their homes."If the shoe was on the other foot and it was happening to them, it wouldn't be allowed, so why is it allowed for me to sit here and deal with it? It's just not fair."*Sarah and Paul are not their real names.
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