Five housing associations in Sussex are teaming up to tackle the nightmare of neighbours from hell.

The associations have introduced acceptable behaviour contracts for tenants proving to be problem neighbours. Those failing to behave face losing their homes and not being rehomed.

One tenant, an 18-year-old woman living on the Denham Road estate in Burgess Hill, became one of the first to sign one of the contracts after repeated problems.

The teenager and her partner would have noisy arguments and use foul language. Police were called to her address on numerous occasions.

The New Downland Association was one of the first housing associations in the region to issue an acceptable behaviour contracts on the girl after working closely with Sussex Police.

She is now half way through a six-month contract, which is constantly under review. She has been warned any further bad behaviour will lead to her being evicted or police making her the subject of an anti-social behaviour order.

Since signing the contract, the teenager's behaviour has improved and there have been no further problems.

The five housing associations include New Downland Housing Association, Sanctuary Housing Association, Orbit Housing Association, James Butcher Housing Association and the William Sutton Trust, who all work on the Meadowview estate in Brighton, where the contracts were officially launched yesterday.

Kevin Day from the New Downland Housing Association, said: "The association already has a robust approach to tackling anti-social behaviour.

"But the joint agency approach between all the region's housing associations, the police and local authorities, means there's been a concerted effort to not only continue delivering quality and affordable housing, but quality of life for residents.

"We're very optimistic that this positive move will help stop anti-social behaviour and improve the quality of life for everyone on housing estates in the region."