SINGAPORE: Yet another Singaporean has taken to social media to vent her frustrations about her difficult neighbours.
Posting on r/askSingapore, a popular Reddit forum, she revealed that her neighbours, who moved in three years ago, have done atrocious things to provoke her family. At first, everything seemed okay, and her dad even tried to be friendly and welcoming during the neighbours’ first few days.
However, things took a turn for the worse when they started placing their prayer altar and burning incense in the narrow hallway that serves as a communal passage for her family and other residents.
“We usually close the door to prevent it from coming in. But it’s so bad that the entire hallway was fogging up with incense and smoke, making it really unbearable at times,” she explained.
The situation became even more concerning when her brother developed a respiratory infection due to prolonged exposure to the incense.
Although they have tried to resolve this issue amicably, the neighbours didn’t take their concerns seriously and instead chose to add another altar cabinet, which only heightened her family’s frustration.
“My dad has argued with them countless times throughout the past 3 years about said issue yet nothing was solved. The only thing it did was to add more tension between both parties.”
As if that weren’t enough, she shared that these neighbours also have a habit of littering, carelessly tossing their lit cigarette butts down to the first floor.
She raised a valid concern about how dangerous this behaviour is, especially since other residents hang their clothes and rugs on the railings. “Tell me, if a lit cigarette bud lands on said rugs and clothes, will it not catch on fire?” she said, emphasizing the risk involved.
The woman also shared that her mum has caught the neighbours on camera engaging in behaviour that feels downright disrespectful.
For instance, there was a time when they deliberately poured water on her family’s plants. When her mum confronted them about it, their response was only a casual, “Oh sorry,” which hardly felt like an apology.
Recently, they were also caught on CCTV cutting parts of her mum’s Thai lemon plant and putting them in their own pot.
Frustrated and desperate for a solution, she reached out to the online community for support and advice on how to handle the ongoing issues with her difficult neighbours.
She said, “I honestly have no idea what their problem is and i desperately want to have a talk with them about the issue but i can’t because my mom doesn’t want me to start an argument with them.
“Forgot to mention that we have reported to town council before, but they couldn’t do much about it.”
“Move. You can’t change some people. Just not worth the hassle.”
In the comments section, a few Singaporean Redditors suggested that if reporting the issue to the authorities didn’t work, she might want to consider posting pictures and videos of her neighbour’s annoying behaviour on social media.
They pointed out that sharing her experiences could put some pressure on the neighbours to change their ways, as it would draw more attention to the situation.
One Redditor said, “Best solution is to post on social media with every camera capture. They know you guys are afraid of them so just make them more famous. Don’t worry you guys will offend them because they started it first.”
Another said, “Sadly in cases like this it’s only when you escalate i.e go on Facebook. that action gets taken. But this comes at the cost of your online footprint and it’s beyond exhausting.”
Some also recommended documenting everything, including the incense smoke and littering, to present a clear case if they decided to escalate the matter to the authorities again.
One Redditor commented, “If you want to report high rise literring, report to NEA. But if you want them to really kana, you record and keep a few then report one shot. They will get fined for a few charges immediately.”
Another asked, “Have you considered seeking mediation through your town council again or involving a neutral third party to help facilitate a conversation with your neighbour?”
Meanwhile, others suggested that she and her family consider relocating if they run out of options.
One Redditor said, “It’s just like if you’re sitting next to a really smelly person. Move. You can’t change some people. Just not worth the hassle.”
Featured image by Depositphotos (for illustration purposes only)