You do not have to live in a Housing Board estate to have annoying neighbours. I live in a private condominium, and some of the residents drive me crazy.
Fortunately, my immediate neighbours are quiet and tidy.
However, the man who used to live above me had a habit of getting home drunk at 3am and making all sorts of noise.
When I spoke to him about it, he denied it was him and tried to blame it on the young family living two floors up. He also used to drag his furniture around the living room on a regular basis.
Some people in my condo hang their clothes and sheets over their balconies to dry, despite rules prohibiting such a practice.
The management says it frequently reminds people not to do so, but the selfish act continues.
I think the laundry makes the building look ugly, and I really don’t care to look at other people’s cheap, dingy sheets and unmentionables flapping in the wind.
It really spoils the lovely view from my 26th-storey apartment.
Also, children ride their skateboards into the glass doors and break them. This happens even though the management has posted signs and sent out fliers telling parents to control their children, and saying that skateboards, bicycles and rough games are not allowed on the walkways.
Once, an elderly woman was injured when someone threw a ball that hit her.
Despite constant reminders, these acts continue.
The pool was closed three times last year when someone defecated in it, and I once found a dirty diaper on the lawn out back by the driveway. I suspect someone tossed it out of his window. Disgusting.
The lifts usually have litter of some sort, and often smell like body odour or urine.
Dogs’ droppings litter the walkways and grass around the condo.
It wasn’t always this way. It has definitely become worse over the last couple of years.
I feel for the HDB dwellers who have to deal with similar annoyances, but at least they are not paying thousands of dollars in rent for the ‘privilege’ of living this way.
Sandra Johnson (Ms)
Source : Straits Times – 20 Sep 2009
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