My family and I have been residing in Singapore for the past 20
years. Although I was not born in Singapore, I have been here 20
out of 21 years of my life. My dad holds a Singapore citizenship.
There has been a recent series of unfortunate events at my
condominium with our newly moved in neighbours. We have been living
here for the past eight year with harmony and peace with our other
neighbours and have faced no troubled so far.
Our newly moved neighbours, who live one floor below us, started to
complain that there are pounding noises coming from our apartment
at various hours of the day and night. I used to exercise at
various timings, that may be the reason why the noises were
created. Ever since their first request, I have stopped exercising
in the house to ensure that they do not get disturbed. However,
they have still complained about the noises during odd hours such
as 6am, and even after 10pm.
Things got out of hand, when the owner of the house trespassed to
our place at 8am and lodged another complain regarding the noises.
The matter was not resolved so we decided to analyse the situation
and meet the week after. Even he agreed to it. The very same night
at 1:30pm, he came to our place, banging on the door, shouting at
the top of his lungs and threatening to call the police. His wife,
came along too and called my dad ‘the biggest liar’.
They have been accusing us on baseless grounds without any evidence
of ‘noise pollution’. Although the matter will be resolved by the
management committee next week, I will like to ask whether it is
appropriate for anyone to barge into somebody else’s property at
1:30am and harass the owners? In addition, being an Asian we are
very sensitive to filial piety where our parents are like our gods.
Calling my dad ‘the biggest liar’ in front of me is not only an
insult to him, but it is also an insult to our culture, upbringing
and values. I will like to know whether it is right for newly moved
in tenants to act in such an aggressive manner, and treat the more
senior tenants with disrespect and humiliation. We feel severely
victimized and our privacy and everyday life has been
disrupted.
