SINGAPORE: While disputes between neighbours are not uncommon in space-scarce Singapore, one individual has gone perhaps a step too far.
A resident at Block 536 Upper Cross Street says her neighbour pounds on their shared wall when she cooks, claiming it overheats the flat. Mdm Li, a 70-year-old retiree, told Shin Min Daily News that her neighbour has been making a fuss when she cooks since 2019.
This happens regularly because Mdm Li often prepares her meals at home. However, her neighbour claims that Mdm Li’s cooking “makes the flat too hot and told me not to cook,” she told the Chinese Daily.
While the neighbour used to pound on the walls only when Mdm Li was eating her meals, starting from the pandemic, the pounding began to happen more often, as the neighbour expressed her ire when Mdm Li prays or watches TV.
Sometimes, the neighbour knocks on the adjoining wall loudly at 1:00 am or even 5:00 am. It is not as though the neighbour is always quiet, as she bangs her door in the middle of the night, which wakes Mdm Li up.
Mdm Li also alleged that her neighbour stomps her feet loudly in front of her flat and proclaims that it’s dirty. The situation between the two neighbours in Chinatown came to a head last month.
On Nov 12, at around 7:00 in the evening, the neighbour started pounding on the adjoining wall while Mdm Li was watching TV. She then proceeded to her neighbour’s residence to confront her about it.
However, Mdm Li claimed that her neighbour threatened her with a laundry pole when she did so. She told Shin Min Daily News that the neighbour has even told her, “If you keep cooking, I will keep knocking.”
Mdm Li added that she sought help from the police and the Town Council, but this has been unsuccessful in creating peace between the neighbours.
Instead, their situation has worsened, and Mdm Li claims that her blood pressure has risen because of the difficulty between them. She has called the police several times since 2023, she added.
A schedule for mediation had been set between the two neighbours on Nov 23, 2023, but Mdm Li told the Chinese daily that her neighbour was a no-show.
As difficult as Mdm Li’s neighbour is, she has not shown the worst behaviour among those who make life difficult for those living near them.
In October, a woman whom people have been calling a “neighbour from hell” moved from Punggol to Bukit Merah, but her antics continued to bother others.
In August, a family who endured knocking noises from their neighbours said that they had taken to sleeping in the living room to get some rest./TISG
