Neighbour’s incessant knocking on wall forces Bukit Merah resident to ‘live like a nomad’
The knocking persisted day and night, and has even left a hole in the living room wall.
The situation is so bad that one elderly man is afraid to return to his flat in Bukit Merah and has been forced to sleep in his car for the past two months.
The man, Mr Xu, who lives with his wife at Block 44 Beo Crescent, told Shin Min Daily News his neighbour moved into the unit next to his two years ago.
At first, the neighbour would use his hands to bang on the wall. But about a week later, he began using tools to hit the wall.
“He would knock on the wall day and night, right where our living room and bedroom are.
“Sometimes he would knock every few hours and the sudden loud sounds would scare us,” said the private-hire driver.
The situation has persisted as Mr Xu does not want to confront his neighbour. He claimed he did so once when the latter poured urine outside his home and the man turned aggressive.
“He started hurling vulgarities at us and even spat at my face.”
Mr Xu reported the incident to the police, but his neighbour denied any wrongdoing.
Meanwhile all the stress has caused Mr Xu to lose 6kg and he suffers from anxiety, even taking heart medication to ease the symptoms.
“I can’t sleep at night, and it affects my driving in the day,” he said.
Mr Xu's wife has been upset by the turn of events as well. Diagnosed with depression in 2016, she appears to have relapsed. She “has gone quiet” and would hide in the corner of the flat while plugged in to her earphones.
Things came to a head on Oct 16 when the neighbour hit the wall continuously for four hours and Mr Xu was forced to call the police and an ambulance.
Since then, he and his wife have been too scared to go home so he now sleeps in his car, while his wife has moved in with her family.
“We’re living like nomads, we have a house but we can’t go home,” he said.
The harassment has continued till this day, claimed Mr Xu.
On Dec 9, he said he returned home with a police officer and found a broken window and a puddle of urine in his living room.
He told the Chinese evening daily that he has taken up the issue with the Housing Board and the police, but nothing happened to his neighbour as the latter refused to respond to them.
Mr Xu said: “We just hope that we’ll be able to find a place to rent soon. We’ve been ‘homeles’ for two months, we want a place to live in.”
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