SINGAPORE - Almost every evening, Mr Afiq Anuar braces himself for the cacophony from children playing football at the void deck of Block 582 Woodlands Drive 16.

Their piercing screams and swearing, and the sounds of the ball thumping against the ceiling, have from time to time woken his three sons – aged three to seven – from their afternoon nap and disrupted his eldest son’s homework time.

The last straw was when he heard his sons repeat the same foul words spewed by the group.

“When 15 people are playing football, screaming and shouting vulgarities, you really cannot tahan (Malay for tolerate),” said the 33-year-old chef, who lives on the second floor.

Exasperated, Mr Afiq put up six posters at the void deck in August 2023, warning the children not to play ball games.

But he saw a few boys peeling the posters off the next day. And their games continued.

Growing issue of noise

Mr Afiq is not alone in his frustration. A few public amenities across Singapore were closed in recent months over noise complaints in residential estates.

A void deck in Woodlands Ring Road was barricaded temporarily by Sembawang Town Council in November 2023 after residents complained of schoolchildren playing and shouting.

A month later, a street soccer court in Bedok North was temporarily closed in response to reports of “groups of inconsiderate street soccer court users” creating noise late into the night, said Senior Minister of State for National Development Tan Kiat How, the MP for the area.

The moves sparked debate, with some social media users sympathising with residents affected by the noise, while others said Singaporeans have become less tolerant towards their neighbours.

Noise complaints surged during the Covid-19 pandemic, with the Housing Board receiving as many as 2,300 and 3,200 complaints a month in 2022 and 2021 respectively. The number dipped to 2,150 in 2023, but is still significantly higher compared with the monthly average of 400 in 2019.

The issue of noise was discussed in Parliament in recent weeks, with Nominated MP Syed Harun Alhabsyi saying that to “close, barricade or block common spaces appears to suggest that there can be no room for compromise and that the redacted behaviour or activity is so abhorrent that there is no place for it at all”.

Minister of State for National Development Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim replied that some interventions in public housing estates, like the closure of amenities, may seem harsh but are necessary to balance the interests of all residents. These moves are not taken lightly, he added.

Mr Afiq tried to endure the racket when he first moved into the Woodlands flat in early 2022. They were simply children having fun, he told himself.

A year later, he could not stand it any longer. He sent feedback via the OneService app, a portal to submit reports on municipal matters, and has since done so more than 20 times.

He spoke to his MP and wrote to citizen journalism portal Stomp, which published an article about the issue. The town council put up signs and notices at the void deck, but nothing changed.

Speaking to the children directly also did not help. A second-floor resident who wanted to be known only as Madam Mas, 62, said the noise has disrupted her three-year-old granddaughter’s naps and she has scolded the children multiple times.

She said: “They’d say sorry, but 10 minutes later they would start again.”

The group is also unfazed by the police, whom Mr Afiq said he has called more than 10 times. The police officers would come and disperse the children, but the children would gather again mere minutes after the police left.

Dr Harun told ST that for most people, the threshold to complain is usually quite high, as most residents are reasonable.

“It is when the games go late into the night, noise levels from the play are incredibly loud consistently, heated or unsavoury exchanges occur with shouts and vulgarities or if such common spaces are misused, that residents would get concerned and upset.”

A family in Hougang has put up with incessant loud banging and hammering noises from a neighbour’s four-room flat for more than a decade.

The man got aggressive when they approached him to talk. Other neighbours have also tried speaking to him but have been turned away by his elderly mother.

One of the residents, who declined to be named, said they tried bringing the case to court in 2016, but gave up due to the tedious process. Mediation attempts were also unsuccessful, as the man did not show up.

Relocating is not a viable option.

The resident added: “My parents are old. There are a lot of financial considerations with moving out, it would mean we might have to downgrade. As victims, why should we be the ones to suffer a loss or downgrade to a smaller flat just to have peace?” 

Over at Yew Tee, a resident who wanted to be known only as Patrick, 42, loses sleep every day because of his neighbour above.

Every night between midnight and 1am, he hears his neighbour walking, dragging chairs and dropping objects. The same noises wake him every morning.

In the day, he can hear his neighbour doing aerobic exercises such as jumping and running across the room.

“It’s like I’m living in a drum, and they are beating the drum,” said Patrick, who works in the logistics industry.

He tried to talk to his neighbour twice, but the neighbour said the noise came from another resident.

Hoping the authorities can do more about this problem, Patrick said: “Just because you can’t see the noise, you can’t deny the noise is there. It’s a big problem relating to mental health and sleep quality.”

Yio Chu Kang MP Yip Hon Weng said common noise-related feedback he receives involves construction noise and noise between neighbours and in the community.

Mr Yip, who helped to set up and run the Municipal Services Office (MSO), including the creation of the OneService app prior to joining politics, said a give-and-take approach is needed to manage noise disputes.

Once, a taiji class asked him if they could start at 7.30am, as the seniors felt it would be too hot later on. He agreed on the condition that they kept their music volume down. So far, no residents have complained, said Mr Yip.

Making mediation compulsory

When noise disputes arise between neighbours, Mr Yip said he usually asks HDB or grassroots leaders to facilitate a conversation between parties, or encourages them to approach the Community Mediation Centre (CMC) or apply to the Community Disputes Resolution Tribunals (CDRT).

At the CMC, trained volunteers help to mediate sessions between the parties involved. Fewer than 30 per cent of applications go to mediation, as it is currently voluntary, though more than 80 per cent of mediated cases are resolved.

If mediation is unfruitful, residents can turn to the CDRT, a specialised court that hears neighbour disputes. It may order errant residents to stop their behaviour or pay damages.

Various MPs have spoken in Parliament about the difficulties they face in getting warring residents to go for mediation, and some like Mr Yip have called for mediation to be made compulsory.

Hougang MP Dennis Tan also said even if both parties participate in mediation, one party may not comply with the mediated obligations.

“For noise-related disputes in HDB estates, until there is a government agency-run effort to handle such disputes with powers to enforce against errant or inconsiderate residents, HDB can do its part by being more proactive when engaging errant residents,” said Mr Tan, adding that the public housing authority has powers which it can use on errant residents, unlike MPs or town councils.

The Government had said previously a new unit would be formed by the end of 2023 to help resolve protracted and egregious disputes between neighbours over noise disturbances.

This unit will be given the power to investigate disputes and stop certain nuisance behaviour. ST understands that it is still in the works.

There are plans to make mediation compulsory. This is one of the proposed enhancements to the community dispute management framework, for which the Government sought public feedback in 2023.

Second Minister for Law Edwin Tong, who spoke on the issue at his ministry’s budget debate in 2023, had said those involved in noise-related disputes could face penalties if they did not attend the mandatory mediation sessions.

The MSO said in response to ST’s queries that the promotion of social norms and government intervention must work hand in hand to tackle the issue of neighbour noise.

The office is also offering basic mediation training for some of its grassroots leaders to assist in such situations.

The MSO has set up a noise experiential lab in Tanglin Halt which allows members of the public to experience how their daily actions may impact their neighbours. The lab, which offers free entry, is open till end of January 2024.

Dr Harun said mediation is an important step to create understanding among all sides.

“To be fair, the challenge for residents is that they are the constant, but the ones who create the noise downstairs or nearby may not be the same and it can get frustrating for the same residents to have to mediate with all parties.

“They may sometimes be seen as the common variable who is upset, but one must also empathise with their predicament and daily lived realities. While mediation may have challenges, it is the only meaningfully sustainable way to achieve a win-win for all parties.”

Noise disputes that may ring a bell

Noisy Bukit Panjang couple barred from flat in Singapore’s first exclusion order

From 2017, Mr Daniel See, who lives in a Housing Board flat in Pending Road, endured the daily racket created by his neighbours downstairs, including sounds of hammering and loud lion dance music in the middle of the night.

Mr See sought help from the police, HDB, town council and his MP, but no one was able to stop the noise. So he filed his first complaint with the CDRT in June 2018.

The tribunal issued a consent order after both parties agreed not to cause excessive noise. However, Mr See’s neighbours – identified in court documents as Madam Iwa and Mr Low Bok Siong – did not comply and the tribunal further granted a special direction ordering the couple to do so.

In January 2020, Mr See obtained an exclusion order to evict his neighbours from their flat for a month. It was the first time such an order was issued by the CDRT.

When the neighbours ignored that too, Mr See filed a Magistrate’s Complaint against them for the breach. The police issued a 12-month conditional warning to Madam Iwa for breaching the exclusion order. This means if she reoffends, she may be prosecuted.

She was also warned for voluntarily causing hurt to Mr See’s father. No action was taken against Mr Low.

Punggol ‘neighbour from hell’ drove six families away

A middle-aged housewife who lived in an HDB block in Punggol Central was accused of splashing oil at her neighbours’ doors, playing loud music and stomping on the floor in the wee hours of the morning.

One resident even claimed the housewife left a bloody pig’s ear on a shoe rack outside her flat. She was dubbed the “neighbour from hell”.

The aggrieved neighbours made multiple police reports, and complained to HDB, their MP and the residents’ committee. Feeling helpless when told by the authorities what the housewife did was not an arrestable offence, six families subsequently sold their flats.

The housewife eventually moved out in 2020, ending years of disputes with her neighbours.

Woman in Yishun who endured noise from neighbours for three years quit job

The woman, who worked as a customer service officer and wanted to be known only as Jessie, had tolerated sounds of dragging furniture and children running and jumping from her neighbours’ flat upstairs in Yishun for about three years.

Her health deteriorated from being sleep-deprived and she had to stop working for six months.

Jessie took her case to the CDRT in July 2020 after three failed attempts at mediation through the Community Mediation Centre. She said her neighbours quietened down for about three weeks after the session, before the noise resumed.

Eventually, she found another job and chose to move out.