My neighbour's dog is always barking
We know it can be frustrating if your neighbour has a noisy pet. Sometimes a dog might become unsettled when someone’s at the door or they hear a loud noise, or sometimes it can be an issue when they’re separated from their owner or left alone for long periods of time.
Is this antisocial behaviour?
For a noise disturbance to be considered antisocial behaviour it needs to be consistent and disruptive to your life. A dog barking occasionally, for example, when the post arrives, or their owner gets home, is not likely to be considered antisocial behaviour. If the dog is barking throughout the day or night, waking up your family at all hours or is disrupting your work or home life, we can investigate this as an antisocial behaviour issue.
Before you report the issue, consider the following questions which will help you to decide whether to raise this issue:
- Is the dog barking consistently over a long period of time?
- How many times in the last week have you been disturbed by the dog barking?
- What is the impact of the dog barking on your life?
- Is this causing a problem for anyone else in your neighbourhood?
If this isn’t an antisocial behaviour issue, it may be worth speaking to your neighbour and letting them know about the impact their pet is having on your life. They may be able to take steps like exercising the dog more regularly or keeping the dog in a different area of the house where they are less likely to disturb you.
What will happen if I report the issue?
It’s unlikely that we’ll be able to stop your neighbour’s dog barking all the time, but if it’s a consistent problem causing repeated disturbances, we can work with you and your neighbour to come to a resolution. It might be that we advise your neighbour about the impact this is having or support them to find some training resources to control the dog. We are very unlikely to evict your neighbour because they have a noisy pet.
How to report antisocial behaviour
Keep a diary incident log.doc of the times and dates of any incidents for at least two weeks before contacting us. Make a note of what time this started, how long it lasted, and the impact it had on you, your family, or your home.
When you have logged the repeated incidents, you can report this to be investigated by our neighbourhoods team by sending your incident log.doc via email to us at enquiries@futureshg.co.uk.
You will need to tell us about the issue, and what, if anything, you’ve tried to resolve this yourself. For example, if you’ve spoken to your neighbour directly and if you know of anyone else who is experiencing the same issue.
We’ll also need to know if you’ve reported this to the police or local authority, and if you have a reference number.
Please remember, we can only investigate reports of antisocial behaviour with your neighbour if they are also a Futures customer, and you’ll need to provide their address.
If your neighbour doesn’t live in a Futures home, you can speak to the council or police for advice on how to deal with this issue.
What we’ll do
When we receive your query, it will be triaged by the customer services team to make sure you’ve provided all the information we need, and then it will be passed to a neighbourhood officer for investigation. They will get in touch with you within 5 working days.
If at any point you or someone else is at risk or you feel a crime is being committed, please contact the police. Always dial 999 in an emergency.
