SINGAPORE: “Inconsiderate neighbours used our house item without permission” was the original complaint an HDB resident made public in a forum on Monday (Nov 25).
“My wife and I recently moved into a new HDB home,” the post read. “… we saw some stuff placed by the wall outside the house… belonged to our neighbours,” the resident explained.
“It posed some inconvenience as it took up our space, and we could not use it to put our shoe racks, etc. But as we didn’t want to make things ugly, we thought we would take time to build a closer relationship with the neighbours before bringing the matter up.
However, last week, our doorbell camera caught some video footage of the neighbour’s guest taking our shoehorn to wear his shoes (without our permission).
We hang the shoehorn outside our house for our convenience. The footage also caught our neighbours smiling while they watched their guest put on his shoes.
My wife was very upset about this and wanted to confront the neighbours about what happened in the video footage and the stuff they cluttered by the wall outside our house,” the resident wrote.
The post ended with the resident asking others if they have had similar experiences dealing with such inconsiderate behaviour by neighbours and how to handle such incidents.
In response to the incident, many shared some advice. While some encouraged the couple to talk directly to their neighbours, others suggested not leaving any of their house items outside their door.
“Just go and talk to them,” said one. “You don’t know if they’re nice or not yet, so don’t waste time trying to imagine. Go in politely and proceed from there accordingly based on your conversation with them.”
Still, another shared, “A general rule of thumb for me. Anything I leave outside my house is prone to being stolen or used by others. So if you don’t like them using your shoehorn, keep it indoors.”
According to the Housing and Development Board (HDB), most issues with neighbours can be resolved among the parties involved. On their site, they encourage residents to practice thoughtfulness and patience when settling disputes.
Featured image by Depositphotos (for illustration purposes only)