Step One

If you are a council tenant contact your Housing Officer at your Housing Service Centre. They will put you in touch with the mediation team.

Step Two

The mediators will arrange to visit you and your neighbour separately. They will ask you to tell them about the trouble you have been experiencing and you can ask them any questions about the mediation service. Everything you tell them is in the strictest of confidence.

Step Three

If you both want to go ahead with mediation, the mediators will arrange to meet both you at a neutral place. This will not be in either of your homes. The mediator will ask you both to take turns to:

• Talk about your view of the problem
• Say briefly what has happened
• Talk about what you want to do about it

Step Four

You will both be asked to think about ONE problem and compare views. You will be asked to make suggestions to solve the problem and discuss each other’s concerns. From this it may be possible to work out an agreement to settle your differences.

You don’t even have to sit in the same room as your neighbour. We offer shuttle mediation where you don’t talk directly to each other but the mediator carries messages between you.

It is the parties involved that make the decisions. No one tells you what to do you get to decide how to sort things out.