Neighbor shields home with fan and burns incense after foul smell from elderly woman’s house lingers for over a year

SINGAPORE: A foul odour from an elderly woman’s flat has been disturbing and causing distress to her neighbours at Telok Blangah Crescent for more than a year now, and neighbours have no choice but to adopt makeshift measures while authorities are arranging a cleanup.

A neighbour who was affected admitted to Shin Min Daily News that she had lived in her unit for more than ten years. She had a pleasant relationship with other residents until about a year ago, when a mother and her two children moved into the unit next door. Ever since the move, the neighbour has been smelling faeces and urine, making her very uncomfortable. 

The neighbour also pointed out that the elderly woman living next to her unit had a problem with urinary incontinence, and it was the cause of the strong smell of urine lingering inside the house. She admitted that even when the doors are shut and the windows are closed on weekdays, the smell is still coming into their unit; on weekends, the smell is even stronger since all the doors and windows are open. 

She said that she had already raised the concern to the authorities, and volunteers did visit to understand the situation. However, nothing resulted from this, so she felt helpless. 

In order to reduce the smell, the neighbour placed a fan outside the door every day in hopes that it would blow the smell away. “Sometimes I have to turn on the fan at 5 a.m.; otherwise, the stench will keep wafting over. Because the fan is on almost all day, my electricity bill has gone up,” the neighbour claimed. 

The neighbour also added that the two sons only want what’s good for their mother, but the current situation is actually doing her more harm.

“I hope they can find a way to send the old woman to a nursing home so that she can be taken care of by professionals,” she remarked.

With this, the elderly woman’s children claimed that they could still take care of their mother. They also admitted that organisations would be coming to their home in the next few days to assist with the cleanup.

Furthermore, they admitted that they have never spoken to the complainants directly and hope that if there are concerns in the future, they will come and communicate with them face to face. 

In similar news related to neighbour complaints, a woman reached her limits after complaining several times about the noises coming from her upstairs neighbour. 

Given that her rest was being disturbed, the woman began to retaliate and bought items that make noises, such as a screeching chicken, a mop handle, a rice spoon, and a small metal bucket, so that whenever there was noise upstairs, she would bang on the ceiling or make a sound in response. 

Read more about the news story here.