noisy neighbors

[JayCee]

Find out what time they sleep at (I assume it's not at the same time as you if they're up till 4am) and then just go and bang on their door and wake them up every day. Tell them that if you can't sleep then they're not going to either, it might not be pretty but eventually they'll get the picture

[Angel M]

maybe you should consider soundproofing, its very common to have this problem in HDB i also have had this when i moved into my place. I got a company called singapore soundproofing to do the whole of my ceilings in my 4 room hdb and i have reduced the noise by around 50% based on the money i wanted to spend. Now i can sleep much better and i dont care about them anymore.
If you ring them ask for the acoustic engineer he really knows his S$$$ haha hope this helps

[sundaymorningstaple]

Joined today, two posts only. Both about Soundproofing.........

tic....toc....tic....toc....

[Yeboah]

is noise pollution a real problem in SG? is it just older HDB places or basically any appartment / condo?

Are there building regulations for newer builds etc? I cant imagine ex-pats paying 6,000 SGD a month to live in places like The Sail are going to be happy hearing their neighbours 24/7?

I've lived underneath noisy neighbours for a number of years in London and it is not fun. I've seen very laid-back people driven to the brink by it. surely with modern sound-proofing and building techniques it should be a thing of the past soon enough?

[detach8]

most condos, especially the expensive ones are generally better built than HDB flats. HDB flats built in the decade of 2000-2010 were very bad (according to some sources). And I happen to live in one of these.

[Edroche]

We have continued to have problems with the neighbours upstairs since my last post over a year ago. Our agent also spoke to them in Chinese but the problems continued soon after. We resorted to tapping the ceiling when they don't keep quiet after 10:30pm, frequently at midnight with reply knocks, sometimes up until 1am. It’s quite difficult for them as they have a badly hyperactive 3 year old but don’t use play mats and coins/golf balls/chairs are normal toys. The kid likes jumping off the bed onto tile floor late at night. This is where the noise is coming from. I regularly see them walking the dog but never saw the child out or at the play area. So after a year and now with our 5 month old daughter who get woken up by the massive thumps on the ceiling, I had enough and went up and lashed out at them. It was an ugly situation and had the grandmother and mother lashing back in frustration. They didn’t want to listen and essentially lashed out at me at how they have been fighting and how the daily beating of the kid by the granny doesn’t help (basically explaining that they dont know what they are doing). Sorry to say it but the granny is just the worst sort of person you would ever want to meet. She told me how the kid was afraid of ang moh now and also the police (because they have threatened the kid with both as scare tactics). It was clear that they are struggling with the how to's of bring up a child. My Singaporean wife came up after she heard the commotion and took over, was able to calm things down to the point where they asked us to come in and see how they don’t use the room directly over our kids room. That room isn't used because it 'has bed bugs' and how the kid goes to bed at 2am. We apologised to each other and I think the shouting match did a lot of good and needed to happen. It’s hard to know where to draw the line in terms of neighbourly expectations in Singapore without detailed rules from hdb and is more of a case by case. My wife thinks that the main problem is education on a number of levels. I agree that the only way to truly fix is to move out but who knows what neighbours you will get in the new place.

[twister_king]

Those of us who have to deal with neighbours from HELL know how agonising, frustrating and upsetting it can be.

Noises from INCONSIDERATE neighbours (mostly directly above you) is not simply a volume noise. Just imagine losing sleep night after night for weeks, months....:

u're soundly asleep to be RUDELY awakened by SUDDEN slammed of a bedroom door, or dragging of furniture, or worst sudden DROP of a heavy object onto the tiled-floor!!!!!!

Then u try to get back to sleep and about to doze off, AGAIN, it happened!!

And all these happening in the middle of night or EARLY in the morning or anytime of the day (why should our slleeping hours be dictated by our nuisance neighbours upstairs??)!!!

Solutions??

1) Talk to them -

And the victim go up in peace (initally) to INFORM them (cos' we like to give them the benefit of the doubt that some people esp. foreigners like pinoy, indians, china-people had never lived in a flat before so do not know their actions and noisy activities have adversed impact on their neighbours). What do we get instead? Arrogance and more inconsiderations!

2) Call Police, HDB - outcome u all know....otherwise we all would not have a topic here already....

3) Move out?

a) what makes one so sure the next place does not have same inconsiderate neighbours? Noisy inconsiderate foreigners ARE everywhere in our HDB flats and condos....!

b) Is it fair? In public places, we can walk away from noisy crowds. Here, we are talking about our OWN HOME! We are no LONGER entitled to peace or some decent sleep in our own place???? Does not make any sense to me! Where is JUSTICE??!!!

we need the authorities to set up a GROUP of people to deal with such incorrigible, inconsiderate neighbours!!

Lastly, I know of one neighbour who cannot stand the noise anymore and she retaliated by spraying urine all over the inconsiderate neighbour's doors and properties!

hope this helps relieve your frustrations in one way or another.....for those who tried all KIND ways to deal with the problems and keep hitting a dead end.....

[twister_king]

most condos, especially the expensive ones are generally better built than HDB flats. HDB flats built in the decade of 2000-2010 were very bad (according to some sources). And I happen to live in one of these.

I think it's true older HDB flats do not face such noise nuisance from neighbours above. I grew up most of my life living in HDB flats. I do not remember any noise problems like we faced nowadays with new flats (built as early from 1996 onwards).

Is it any wonder why reports of neighbour disputes were on the rise in the past few years????

Thinner walls, lower ceilings, inferior HDB quality materials I believed accelerated the noise problems. Yet we are paying more and more for newer flats.......

Increased foreigners (those who lived in villages or landed properties in their OWN countries) do NOT understand they cannot do what they are used to doing back home eg carelessly dropped objects frequently onto the floor, dragging furnitures, closing bedroom doors without care, etc without considerations for neighbours below or beside them. Years ago before we have so many foreigners in our HDB living we never had so many noise problems!

[BillyB]

Those of us who have to deal with neighbours from HELL know how agonising, frustrating and upsetting it can be.

Noises from INCONSIDERATE neighbours (mostly directly above you) is not simply a volume noise. Just imagine losing sleep night after night for weeks, months....:

u're soundly asleep to be RUDELY awakened by SUDDEN slammed of a bedroom door, or dragging of furniture, or worst sudden DROP of a heavy object onto the tiled-floor!!!!!!

Then u try to get back to sleep and about to doze off, AGAIN, it happened!!

And all these happening in the middle of night or EARLY in the morning or anytime of the day (why should our slleeping hours be dictated by our nuisance neighbours upstairs??)!!!

Solutions??

1) Talk to them -

And the victim go up in peace (initally) to INFORM them (cos' we like to give them the benefit of the doubt that some people esp. foreigners like pinoy, indians, china-people had never lived in a flat before so do not know their actions and noisy activities have adversed impact on their neighbours). What do we get instead? Arrogance and more inconsiderations!

2) Call Police, HDB - outcome u all know....otherwise we all would not have a topic here already....

3) Move out?

a) what makes one so sure the next place does not have same inconsiderate neighbours? Noisy inconsiderate foreigners ARE everywhere in our HDB flats and condos....!

b) Is it fair? In public places, we can walk away from noisy crowds. Here, we are talking about our OWN HOME! We are no LONGER entitled to peace or some decent sleep in our own place???? Does not make any sense to me! Where is JUSTICE??!!!

we need the authorities to set up a GROUP of people to deal with such incorrigible, inconsiderate neighbours!!

Lastly, I know of one neighbour who cannot stand the noise anymore and she retaliated by spraying urine all over the inconsiderate neighbour's doors and properties!

hope this helps relieve your frustrations in one way or another.....for those who tried all KIND ways to deal with the problems and keep hitting a dead end.....

Talented lady....!

[the lynx]

This is what I call stooping down to another one's low levels...

How classy, not!

[sundaymorningstaple]

Years ago before we have so many foreigners in our HDB living we never had so many noise problems!

I've been here 30 years. It was noisy back then as well. Even more so as wages were depressed worse than they are now and families were much bigger before they found the internet and colour TV and mobile phones. They actually looked at their partners and had a relationship. The only problem then was not so much the noise (it was always there, but people were much more tolerant then) but more a problem of killer litter as before they moved into the HDB flats, Auntie threw the garbage out the kitchen window into the sewer/drainage canal/river. All of a sudden they still throw it the window but it's 12 stories up. Old habits die hard and so did a number of unfortunate passerbys.

Twister_king, you have a seemingly short memory.

[twister_king]

This is what I call stooping down to another one's low levels...

How classy, not!

totally AGree! and it's disgusting...but then she's FORCED to take this path since authorities / law is not on her side.....!!

[nakatago]

This is what I call stooping down to another one's low levels...

How classy, not!

totally AGree! and it's disgusting...but then she's FORCED to take this path since authorities / law is not on her side.....!!

There are less gross ways to stoop so low... a passive-aggressive note, for example. Or just simply talk to them.

And why did the police NOT help? We had a passive-aggressive neighbor who, instead of walking five steps to our door to ask us (we were having a party) to tone it down, called the cops on us. The cops did come and just made us promise to keep the noise down and never do it again. The cops seemed annoyed that they had to come for that and focus on something more important instead of our neighbor asking. True story.

Or you could resort to this: http://lifehacker.com/5852903/silence-n ... n-speakers

[twister_king]

Try imagining when one has to deal with a constantly inconsiderate noisy neighbour to having your hairwash at a salon to have the service staff suddenly spray water onto your face to choke you through your nose, just because she's CARELESS???

Yes, u can forgive her once, twice, thrice.....(some people can be THAT patient). But when she doesn't stop her carelessness time and again...what do u do?? Stop patronizing that salon, right?

Singapore's accommodation are mainly HDB which majority of us could only afford (even though it's getting harder nowadays). Is moving the solution? We would still end up in another flat and probably the same problem!!

And it's our HOME! are we not entitled to peace and quiet in our own home?? And why should our sleep be deprived by constantly CARELESS, or deliberately inconsiderate NOISE making neighbours???

Therefore to nip the root of the problem these noisy neighbours should be penalised with fines .....or be made to live on the ground floor (1st floor) or 2nd floor only!

[twister_king]

There are less gross ways to stoop so low... a passive-aggressive note, for example. Or just simply talk to them.

And why did the police NOT help? We had a passive-aggressive neighbor who, instead of walking five steps to our door to ask us (we were having a party) to tone it down, called the cops on us. The cops did come and just made us promise to keep the noise down and never do it again. The cops seemed annoyed that they had to come for that and focus on something more important instead of our neighbor asking. True story.

Or you could resort to this: http://lifehacker.com/5852903/silence-n ... n-speakers[/quote]

Of course most of us have been KIND to advise the noisy neighbours to tone down. But how many would meet people like you to heed and be considerate???

I agree that noisy neighbours some times do NOT KNOW they were a nuisance to others till another NEED to come and inform them. If they are receptive and heed, the problem would have been solved. However, some noisy neighbours are defensive, arrogant and would NOT stop being a nuisance!!

I take it you are a cultured person. How many people are like you???

If you read the thread, most have tried all NICE ways - talking, advising, calling police, HDB etc .....STILL WONT WORK!

so hope u get the picture and hope you NEVER had to deal with such INCORRIGIBLE INCONSIDERATE noisy neighbours in your life time. If u do, U'll remember my post!