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The flat-roofed corner terrace house stands out amongst its pitched-roof, Tudor-style neighbours. Photo: Benjamin Seetor for The Straits Times.
The Straits Times recently published an article about residents in Greenridge Crescent expressing unhappiness over a neighbour who redeveloped his corner terrace house to have a flat roof, resulting in a style that is incongruent with the rest of the houses in the Tudor-style estate.
While the heinous act of truncating a steep gabled roof with decorative half- timbering that is characteristic of a Tudor-style home is akin to architectural blasphemy, I cannot help but remind myself that regardless of how much of a visual atrocity the house is on the outside, what matters more are the people who live inside. In other words, better a nasty-looking house than nasty neighbours.
In our property hunt, the folks with whom we will share a boundary wall or common area should rank up there with criteria such as location, size, number of rooms and price per square foot (psf), because good neighbours are worth more than any district code or proximity to an MRT station. Unpleasant neighbours can turn an otherwise lovely neighbourhood from heaven to hell. Some of the most common causes of disputes between neighbours include parking problems, noise disturbances and even olfactory-related issues. Such neighbours may not be out to deliberately torment you, but their severe lack of consideration or inflated sense of entitlement are punishment enough to those who have the misfortune to live near them.
I am sure we all remember the Everitt Road saga, where parking woes within the landed estate sparked a neighbourhood war, and CCTV and floodlights were deployed as weapons. With the growing prevalence of bike-sharing, indiscriminate bicycle parking can also be a nuisance, especially when your neighbour starts to accumulate a whole fleet of bicycles and insists on leaving them outside your gate, in the middle of the road, or along the common corridor.
In an estate not too far away, another neighbourhood war could be brewing due to the incessant barking of pet dogs in the middle of the night and roosters who crow like faulty alarms at four in the morning. Sometimes, the barking and crowing emanate from the humans themselves, belting out karaoke hits at the top of their lungs. Examples such as the Toa Payoh resident who took to flinging faeces on her neighbour’s door may be the extreme, but it is proof that such neighbours do exist.
For cases involving pungent smells arising from cooking or the burning of incense, the cultural and religious implications make matters a little trickier. However, even tobacco worshippers can be difficult to weed out. In a letter to The Straits Times forum, one HDB resident wrote about her respiratory problems caused by her neighbours’ chain smoking. When visited by NEA officers, the neighbours became angry and started shouting and suggested that the complainant move out instead. Moving out may solve the immediate problem, but there is no guarantee that your new neighbours will be any better.
In fact, they could turn out worse. What then? Keep moving until you find the perfect neighbours? Even if you do, there is no guarantee that they will stay put forever.
So, if you are surrounded by nice neighbours, do not take them for granted. Reciprocate and bring them some pies, perhaps. Come to think of it, those same pies will come in handy when dealing with unpopular neighbours, but delivered in the manner that they deserve.
At the end of the day, it’s still about being considerate and patient with the people we live with. Why? Because no man is an island entire of itself.
Good to know: Dispute claims between neighbours can now be filed online, under the Community Disputes Resolution Tribunal (CDRT) at www.statecourts.gov.sg.