What is harassment?

Harassment is an offence committed against a person or property to intimidate people and make them feel uncomfortable

Examples of harassment include:

• calling people names; 
• making threats to people's homes;
• abusive letters or graffiti;
• arson or attempted arson; and
• physical attacks.

What is hate crime?

Hate crime is a more specific type of harassment.  Hate crime is a criminal offence comitted against a person or property because of their:

• ethnic background;
• nationality;
• religion;
• sex;
• sexuality; or
• disability.

We will not accept any incidents of harassment or hate crime that involve our tenants, employees, contactors or agents.  We are committed to taking quick and effective action to protect the victim, stop abuse and prevent more incidents in the future.

If you experience harassment

If you feel that you are being harassed, you should contact us.  If you have a support worker, you can also tell them about the problem.

We also encourage you to report all incidents of harassment to the police. The harassment you are experiencing may be a criminal act (such as racial harassment) and, if so, the police have powers to deal with this. These powers may be effective by themselves or they may be used along with action that we can take.

If you commit harassment you could:

• face legal action and be evicted;
• have to pay a fine; or
• go to prison.

Our leaflet 'Are you a victim of harassment or hate crime?' explains the action we can take and the help we will provide.