i need help with problems regarding my neighbour as well. it's a
really long story, i'll try to summarize it in one sentence:
"they like to spray bleach into my house, but we don't have
solid evidence of them in the act"
if you have time to spare, you may like to read on:
i've stayed at my house since i was born, i'm already 20. then,
my old neighbour (whom have not once complained about my family's
behaviour during their stay) sold their house last year. the new
flat owner rented the entire unit to several families, whom
apparently aren't locals.
initially, they started off cooking curry almost every hour of
the day. Mind you, it's not nice smelling curry like my other malay
neighbour makes. it's super pungent and unpleasant to the nose.
like the curry got burnt and what's cooking is the aluminum from
the wok. i suspect they do not flush after using the washroom as
well, since there seem to be an accumulation of ammonia smell
coming from the bathroom's drain. besides that, when hanging out
the clothes using bamboo poles, they LOVE to use theirs to hit
ours, which is rather gross. in addition, there is noise every
night after midnight. it's not continuous-- we can easily call the
police for that. it sounds like people using the washing board
to wash clothes, and then random thumping noises. we stay above
them, doesn't make sense for us to hear their walking/ running etc.
idk but it feels like they have been using bamboo poles to hit
their ceiling. they also like to burn incense, the stick form in
their house, and have a pot of incense at the stairs between our 2
levels. the smell is overwhelming, but we understand. for religious
reasons we tolerate that.
BUT the previous actions mentioned above, we do not
understand. i don't think we deserve all these
nonsense when we didn't even cause disturbance to them in any
way. even if we did, they could have come up and speak to us,
right? there's only my mum at home usually, how much trouble can
she create? so, we spoke to them nicely several
times. the wives who stay at home in the day don't speak
english, and just answers "no, no, no", to whatever we say. fine,
we wait for their husbands to come home. we spoke to them several
times, okay good, they understand where we are coming from, say
they'll try to restrict their actions (eg. when cooking close the
kitchen windows a little, try to keep the bathroom clean, dun poke
the bamboo poles too high when keeping their laundry...)
AND IT COMES BACK WITHIN ONE WEEK. AND WORSE OFF EACH TIME. NEW
"PATTERNS" APPEAR. AND THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE STAYING THERE
INCREASES.
i applaud them for their creativity, seriously. from incense
burning, they upgrade to air freshener. the cheapo smelly kinds.
spray out of their window. okay, i have no evidence of that but i
can hear the nozzle sprays loudly when i stand by the window and
the smell diffuses into my house. and next thing is all windows in
my house closed, all fans turned on, main door opened to let the
smell out. and the cooking smell appears with increasing frequency,
everytime my mum puts out our laundry. and the noise levels up to
door slamming, and table dragging etc. they blame it on their
kids.
it's getting out of hand. the neighbour 2 storeys below us got
affected as well. we moved on to writing to the flat owner through
post (not sure if he saw the letters). we went to HDB (to check if
the rental is illegal, since the owner does not stay in the house,
and it's rented to a few foreign families), then to town council
for the daily incense burning along the corridor, it's a fire
hazard especially when there are many kids in my block. then to the
police for the noise. then also to the meet the peoples' session to
speak to the MP.
BUT TO NO AVAIL. the people sent to handle this case so happens
not to do their job competently. we understand, they do have their
limits.
the people from hdb cant possibly catch them for illegal
renting, when they came we peeked at the neighbour, they refused to
open the door. after awhile, we see a man, supposedly the flat
owner coming, and then the person from hdb came again. ah, the
owner stays in that unit! like real. but we dont have evidence of
him not staying there! we told the hdb officer, he insisted on his
observations.
the people from town council. HO HO HO. for the incense, yes,
it's a sensitive issue. but what they did was to stick a weak piece
of paper on the wall above the incense pot between our 2 storeys.
it looks familiar. i have the exact same one at home, just that
it's not pasted on the wall. i think every year during the chinese
tomb-sweeping festival every household gets that.
the police, i know, the noise, you cant really catch it, it's on
and off. we don't expect you to send someone to stay overnight with
us to check it out. maybe just get someone to issue a simple
letter? and they just told us that they're too busy. yes it's a
trival matter compared to catching serial murderers. but in
singapore, really? in a neighbourhood police post, really?
then they upgrade again. this time to spraying bleach during
meal times. i'm really at a loss what to do. my mum's affected
emotionally, so thinks that they're opposing her deliberately.
i understand we must try to accept people's differing ways of
life. but shouldn't they also try to be more open minded and change
their habits a little?
any smart people out there can offer me some suggestions to
tackle this issue? or are we over reacting in the sense that all
these are common?
