Young women sat together on resting her hand reassuringly on the other's shoulder

Harassment or hate crimes

Harassment and hate crimes are hostile behaviours that deliberately target someone for their race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, age, or disability.

What are harassment and hate crimes?

Harassment and hate crimes can affect both individuals and groups, and can be a single isolated event or a series of repeated incidents.

The police can take legal action against hate crime after a single incident

Harassment and hate crimes can include:

intimidation, threats, or verbal abuse
offensive letters, hate mail, or online abuse
offensive leaflets or posters
vandalism or criminal damage
bullying, physical attacks, or violence.

A distressed young woman sits on the sofa in foreground with man blurred in the background

Domestic abuse or violence

See how we can help, and find your local support services.

How to report hate crime

If you’re being victimised – or suspect someone else is being victimised – you should phone the police on 999 when it’s safe to do so.

You can also report abuse to us online, or by phoning our customer services team on 0300 500 8000.

Our trained staff are experienced in handling these kinds of situations and one of them will get back to you within 1 working day using your preferred method of contact.

Will everything I say be kept confidential? 

Every report of harassment and hate crime we receive is treated with complete confidence.

We want you to feel as comfortable as possible, so we’ll ask you to tell us the safest ways to contact you. Any interviews or conversations will be carried out in private and if we need to meet you, we’ll agree a safe location.

However, if we’re worried about your immediate safety and welfare - or that of any children or vulnerable adults living with you - we have the right to contact the police or social services without your permission.

How we can help

Your safety is the most important thing to us, and we’ll do everything we can to make sure you get the support you need.

This might include working with the police or local council to get you specialised services or extra safety measures.

Some of the measures we can take include:

mediation
verbal or written warnings
acceptable behaviour agreements
restraining orders or injunctions
criminal prosecution
eviction.

All forms of harassment or hate crime are completely unacceptable and committing any of them is considered a breach of the terms of a tenancy agreement or lease.

We’ll take legal action to evict people found guilty of harassment or hate crimes.