A long-running neighbour dispute in Serangoon has taken a scary turn. Two families living in the same HDB block have been quarrelling over noise issues for years. Things got so bad that one neighbour installed a CCTV camera outside his flat, and later discovered footage of his downstairs neighbour carrying a brick and walking up to his unit.
Mr Xian, who lives upstairs, shared on social media that he has been repeatedly harassed by his downstairs neighbour over the past year. He said the situation left him “very troubled.”
Speaking to Shin Min Daily News, he explained that he has lived in the block for 40 years, while his neighbour moved in more than 10 years ago. The two families got along peacefully until about six years ago, when an incident involving the neighbour’s son happened.
According to Mr Xian, the boy cried nonstop and kept banging on the door, demanding to be let out. After an hour, he brought some chocolate downstairs to ask if the family needed help.
“But the neighbour told me not to meddle in his affairs, so I contacted the authorities,” he recalled. After that, both sides kept to themselves.
Things only flared up again in October last year. Mr Xian said that when he entered the lift and saw his neighbour, the latter suddenly showed him the middle finger. “I was completely puzzled and decided to make a police report,” he said.
He added that soon after, his slippers went missing and his bicycle was mysteriously deflated. To be safe, he applied to install a CCTV camera.
“Afterwards, I realised he often came up to the corridor in the middle of the night, even leaning against my door. It was very suspicious.”
Mr Xian said that when he tried to talk things out, his neighbour accused him of making noise.
“But I am busy with work, I don’t even have the time. He claimed I had installed a noise-making device. No matter how I explained, he didn’t believe me. I felt very helpless.”
In December last year, the CCTV camera caught something that shocked him.
“I saw the neighbour carrying a brick and pacing along the corridor. I was terrified and immediately called the police.”
He also alleged that the neighbour had loitered outside his flat, blasted loud music and banged on the ceiling. In that month alone, he made three police reports.
The neighbour, George, a 43-year-old freelancer, admitted during an interview that he had indeed carried a brick upstairs, intending to smash the door, but calmed down before taking action.
He said he did this out of frustration, as he believed Mr Xian was making constant noise.
“For the past two to three years, almost 24 hours a day, he has been creating noise. It affected my life so badly that I had to rely on sleeping pills to fall asleep.”
George added,
“When he’s in a good mood, it’s just dragging sounds. But when he’s in a bad mood, he bangs and knocks, even lifting chairs and slamming them onto the floor. Sometimes in the middle of the night he bangs once, and I can’t sleep anymore.”
He also claimed the conflict dated back to the incident years ago when his child cried.
“When my baby was crying, he came down and ordered me to stop the crying. I replied, ‘How can you control a baby?’ Maybe he thought I refused, so he started finding ways to take revenge. That’s why today we have this problem.”
Mediation failed to solve the problem
In May this year, the Subordinate Courts instructed both sides to attend mediation at the Community Mediation Centre (CMC). George requested to postpone the session until August.
The mediation agreement required Mr Xian to put rubber stoppers on his tables and chairs, and to lay mats in his bedroom. George agreed not to bang on the ceiling or loiter along the corridor to disturb him.
Mr Xian said that after mediation, George stopped playing loud music and hanging around the corridor. But instead, he started making repeated police reports.
“In the past month or so, he has called the police at least five times, all citing noise problems. Even though we did nothing wrong, my elderly mother gets worried whenever the police turn up, and neighbours also start asking what is going on,” he said.
George, however, accused Mr Xian of lying. He claimed that on the very day they signed the mediation agreement, the noise continued.
“Every time I call the police, he stops for one or two hours. But afterwards, the noise starts again,” he said.
