TL;DR – Who are you gonna call if you encounter “neighbours from hell”?
There was a news article earlier today about “hammering unit” in Pending Road, and how a family had refused to comply with Singapore’s first-ever Exclusion Order served. The order bars them from their own home.
It got me curious about such cases of “neighbours from hell” and I was doing some back-reading and saw that there’re nearly 3,500 cases of neighbour disputes every year. That’s quite a lot of disputes!
And then I came across a newly reported case in the Chinese media. This time, it’s in Boon Lay.
The “granny” neighbour claimed that oil and urine can fertilise the plants and keep Aedes away. She has even thrown vomit into the pot before (via)
So is it mischief or was she really trying to pile on fertilisers for the neighbours?
This “granny” neighbour has been said to be disturbing her neighbours for about half a year. She has been pouring oil, urine into her neighbours’ flower pots in the middle of the night, and she has apparently even poured vomit into the pots. Yeps, her acts has made the corridor stink like crazy.
Mr Ng of Block 209 Boon Lay Place told Lianhe Wanbao that he lives five doors away from this “granny” neighbour in her 60s. She started doing these things to disturb the neighbours since half a year ago.
Mr Ng said that at 11PM on the night of 18th July last year, he caught a whiff of sharp urine smell when he was walking along the common corridor. He went in search of the source of the offending smell and found a small bag of trash and the floor was wet with urine. The same thing happened again three days later. Mr Ng then alerted the town council.
According to Mr Ng, for the six months following the July incidents, the pots that his mother has placed along the corridor were poured with oil, urine, vomit and even prawn shells. There were nine incidents last month (December) alone, and Mr Ng had made five police reports.
Another neighbour Mr Lee (75, fisherman) shared that the “granny” neighbour started to water the plants late at night for the past six months. She would suddenly knock her watering equipment around noisily and it has been disturbing Mr Lee’s sleep. Mr Lee said that the “granny” neighbour will also throw rubbish along the corridor and the stench is very bad. In an attempt to keep peace, Mr Lee has been trying to put up with all her antics.
Another neighbour who did not wish to be named said that he has not been sleeping well as the elderly neighbour will talk very loudly and be throwing things around noisily. “Ah-ma keeps some plants right at her doorstep and because she uses urine to water the plants, the stench is really bad. Some residents have called the police and we’ve seen the police coming over to help mediate for the past three days.”
Sounds really bad.
So, what can people do when they have neighbours from hell?
It turns out that although one can call the police or approach a few Government agencies, no one can really tackle the problem.
Call the police? What if it’s a non-arrestable offence?
If you make a police report, yes, the police will come. But more often than not, the neighbours’ deeds are not arrestable offences, so the police can only try and mediate.
The police need a warrant to arrest someone who commits a non-arrestable offence.
So if you want such a warrant to be issued, you will first have to lodge a Magistrate’s Complaint. A Magistrate’s Complaint is filed when a person wishes to start a private prosecution against someone he believes has committed a criminal offence against him.
So then the magistrate will decide if the case is worth pursuing and if yes, then he may direct the police to investigate further. In this process, the magistrate may issue a warrant for the alleged offender’s arrest.
Other avenues
Apart from a Magistrate’s Complaint, people can turn to the Community Disputes Resolution Tribunals (CDRT), which was set up to handle such disputes.
But there’s a catch. Potentially an expensive one.
You see, while decisions by the magistrate and CDRT judges are legally binding, a complainant has to apply to the court for a Special Direction to ensure compliance if an order is breached. To do so, the complainant has to make a Magistrate’s Complaint to privately prosecute the neighbour for breaching the Special Direction or start contempt of court proceedings against the neighbour – all of which would be a tedious and expensive process.
Other avenues for recourse include applying for voluntary mediation or for a protection order under the Protection from Harassment Act. For the former, you can go and see your MP during one of those Meet the People Sessions and they might have grassroot leaders or volunteers who can help you.
What about HDB or the town council?
Well, the HDB is the agency that builds and manages Housing Board flats, so there will be some things or disputes that are out of their scope. So HDB officials may refer the cases to the town council and police. I understand that it is sometimes possible that inter-agency help can come in.
But I suppose the chief function of a town council is really more about estate management, which refers to things like managing the common property and areas, maintaining the lifts and such. So in the end, the complainants may still end up being told “Sorry, wrong department” or “Sorry, this does not come under our purview.”
And then what?
It is no wonder that most of the people who have suffered in the hands of the “neighbours from hell” end up selling their flats and moving somewhere else.
But the thing is the trouble may still continue since the new neighbours will still have to put up with the antics if the “neighbours from hell” decide to carry on. So instead of transferring the problem from existing to new neighbours, perhaps someone should look into the matter and solve such issues at the crux.
Perhaps appointing and empowering an agency to handle such cases will be a good step in the right direction.
(Featured image via)
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