noisy neighbors

[nakatago]

Funnily enough I lived in Germany for years and the Ruhezeit/quiet time worked pretty well. Its just a way of life otherwise the neighbours will sort you out. That’s the difference I think, in Singapore people avoid normal and healthy confrontation. Its not the government that will change social behaviour here its the people keeping each other in check and laying down the rules. I've seen confrontation here but its usually some older folks flinging chopping-board singlish at each other and is also absolutely hilarious to watch.

Yeah...we were having a house party once and the cops came to ask us to settle down! They told our neighbor complained. Geez, we knew we were in the wrong but is it too much to ask for for them to knock on our door (which is 1.2 meters away from theirs) and ask us to keep it down? I felt bad for the cops who had to go out of their way of their patrol, go up our flat and all that.

And talk about passive aggressive, after the cops left, we'd peek through our door's peephole (our door's closed all the time) and see the neighbor's door wide open.

Again, we knew we were at fault but having the cops to do something you could?

[JR8]

JR8, is there anywhere you haven't lived

I thought I was doing well with 4 different countries.

Hats off mate.

I haven't managed Thailand yet, have to see if I can notch that up soon

Edit to add:
I agree EdRoche and Nak, and you see it time and time again. Locals not 'wanting to make a fuss' or 'make trouble' in dealing with an issue. But then trying to get the government (police, or the NEA in the case of another current thread) to smash the perpetrator. It seems cowardly.

[nakatago]

JR8, is there anywhere you haven't lived

I thought I was doing well with 4 different countries.

Hats off mate.

I haven't managed Thailand yet, have to see if I can notch that up soon

Edit to add:
I agree EdRoche and Nak, and you see it time and time again. Locals not 'wanting to make a fuss' or 'make trouble' in dealing with an issue. But then trying to get the government (police, or the NEA in the case of another
current thread) to smash the perpetrator. It seems cowardly.

I wish every time a whiny, passive-aggressive person in Singapore calls the police or submits something to stomp, a sassy, black lady would answer/review.

[Seasoul]

ahaha naka, that would be pure bliss to witness

Noisy neighbors in SG:
1. Try to reason with them and get your smile on full force.
2. Go to the condo management or the HDB community center (they are sometimes scarily reactive and effective)
3. Don't waste more time and energy and move out if you can or become a psycho who makes even more noise and harasses his/her neighbors until they stop.

And please do not tell me this is not a solution because if you've lived in SG more than 2 years you bloody know it is.

[JR8]

All very well, but what if you do not speak the local language well enough?

[detach8]

folks, i am in such pain and the noise is driving me totally insane. i've been staying in my HDB apartment for almost 1.5 years and nothing has changed.

my neighbours wear heels, drag furniture and have king kong feet. all these and more starting from 12 midnight onwards till 4 am. stay tuned for unlimited episodes of NOISE on channel SG.

i'm glad i've finally found a forum with people who have similar problems.

did any of you managed to resolve this peacefully directly with your neighbours or authorities? it's driving me nuts and i'm on the verge of maybe... murder

i'm not really an expat per se. i came from neighbouring malaysia and i'm willing to bet my neighbours back in malaysia are far more gracious than my singaporean ones.

[nakatago]

folks, i am in such pain and the noise is driving me totally insane. i've been staying in my HDB apartment for almost 1.5 years and nothing has changed.

my neighbours wear heels, drag furniture and have king kong feet. all these and more starting from 12 midnight onwards till 4 am. stay tuned for unlimited episodes of NOISE on channel SG.

i'm glad i've finally found a forum with people who have similar problems.

did any of you managed to resolve this peacefully directly with your neighbours or authorities? it's driving me nuts and i'm on the verge of maybe... murder

i'm not really an expat per se. i came from neighbouring malaysia and i'm willing to bet my neighbours back in malaysia are far more gracious than my singaporean ones.

Have a word with your neighbors. Give them, say, 3 or 5 chances. If they don't relent, ONLY then should you call the authorities and explain you gave them enough warnings already...unlike our cowardly neighbor (see post above).

[detach8]

well, i did

i had maybe 5 words with them, i.e. 5 visits, followed by countless police calls. i even visited the MP and wrote to HDB.

all of the calls to the authorities came back with something like "yes we have spoken to them, but there's nothing much we can do"

so what CAN the damn authorities really do?

[nakatago]

well, i did

i had maybe 5 words with them, i.e. 5 visits, followed by countless police calls. i even visited the MP and wrote to HDB.

all of the calls to the authorities came back with something like "yes we have spoken to them, but there's nothing much we can do"

so what CAN the damn authorities really do?

well, then, it's time to get creative!

[carlsum1986]

well, i did

i had maybe 5 words with them, i.e. 5 visits, followed by countless police calls. i even visited the MP and wrote to HDB.

all of the calls to the authorities came back with something like "yes we have spoken to them, but there's nothing much we can do"

so what CAN the damn authorities really do?

well, then, it's time to get creative!

time to get even........maybe use a broom to knock on your ceiling every 5 minutes or knock on their door every 30 mins

[detach8]

i mean seriously i have better things to do than to hammer on my ceiling (which I do, btw, with a 1kg dumbbell from the dollar shop and that makes a much louder noise than a wooden stick) or go knock on their door

they're completely unreasonable . there was never ONCE they admitted it was their fault or apologized. every visit was an argument and shitloads of excuses, e.g. they could say their kids are asleep when the TV is on a cartoon channel and the kids are just walking around the house, they could say it's the unit above them making the noise (what? 2 units above me??), all kinds of crap.

i'm not racist but i've never had luck communicating with indians in general. not all are bad, but some especially uneducated "locals" are terrible.

[x9200]

i'm not racist but i've never had luck communicating with indians in general. not all are bad, but some especially uneducated "locals" are terrible.

It happens in other countries too and bet you have not enough bad knocking experience to make here any racial (actually this would be cultural) justification. The problem is pretty universal and actually the only solution is to move out. If you really want to go only formal route than go to a lawyer and check what you can really do. One possibility would be to break your current lease contract and later sue them for all related damages. This, if you can prove/ document there is really a problem with your neighbours.

[detach8]

biggest problem is i bought the damn flat and am bounded by a HDB loan so I can't move for 5 years.

i've asked around and the legal process will be long and painful, not to mention trying to gather evidence for some random knocks at night aint easy to justify.

sigh.

[sundaymorningstaple]

Maybe they are peeved off at having all the HDB resale prices jacked up by PR's like yourself.

[detach8]

well i'm a singaporean now. i've been here for the past 21 years so what are they complaining? i go thru the same shit as them y'know.