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Downstairs Neighbours’ Plants’ Roots Choked Drain Pipe in East Coast Flat

2022-12-25 , 5:32 am

Are you having trouble with your neighbours? Well, it’s all part and parcel of the Singaporean HDB experience.

One particular Singaporean was unfortunate enough to live above a neighbour whose thumbs were so green their plants’ roots grew to 2 metres long and choked the drain pipes.

Here’s what happened.

Neighbour’s Plants’ Roots Choked Drain Pipe

A resident living on the fourth floor of Heritage East condominium suddenly found her apartment flooded after some rainfall one day in late November.

As it turns out, the water had seeped into her home from her balcony. Some of the water even seeped into the corridor outside of her home.

According to Lianhe Zaobao, the 45-year-old fourth-floor resident had found that the water was coming from a drain pipe in her balcony. Apparently, the roots of her third-floor neighbour’s plants were growing into the drain pipes, thereby choking the pipes.

As such, water in the choked pipes seeped into her home.

She spent four to five hours cleaning up the water that seeped into her home that day. Since then, whenever it rains, she has had to rush home to clean up the water seeping into her home using plastic basins.

While we complain about our neighbours dragging the chairs upstairs in the wee hours of the night or even screaming too loudly during the World Cup matches, this resident has had to deal with a neighbour flooding her home.

Two weeks later, she finally hired a plumber to get to the bottom of the issue.

And sure enough, she discovered what was causing the flooding in her home: a two-meter-long plant root growing inside her flat’s drain pipe.

Perhaps it’s just us, but the plant roots look like a scene out of a sci-fi movie or maybe Stranger Things.

It took three hours for the plumber to remove the plants’ roots from the pipes.

Furniture and Items Damaged From The Water That Seeped Into the House

The water that seeped from the drain pipe into the house wasn’t the only problem.

With all the water flooding her home, the affected resident’s washing machine on the balcony was also damaged.

Her bed frame also started to become mouldy from the water, so the resident had no choice but to sleep on her sofa instead.

Well, at least she gets to wash her floors for free, although it is with drain pipe water…

Real Estate Agency Tried Contacting Third-Floor Resident but to No Avail

Real estate agency Knight Frank Pte Ltd has shared that the third-floor resident in question likely caused the choked drain pipes.

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However, while the agency has attempted to reach out to the tenants staying in the relevant unit and even visited the unit three times, their efforts were unsuccessful.

Regardless, the agency emphasises that the safety and comfort of their residents are their utmost priority and that they will continue trying to resolve this issue.

Recent Attention On “Neighbours From Hell”

There have been a handful of incidents in recent months where residents are running into hiccups like these with their neighbours.

This month, during the peak of the World Cup season, a resident even pasted a note in their lift lobby to remind their neighbours not to scream during the World Cup matches.

That isn’t even the worst incident. Last month, some neighbours apparently poured urine and other garbage out their windows.

Running into unpleasant interactions with our neighbours is inevitable, given that we live so close to one another in our HDB flats. What’s important is that we learn to communicate our concerns to our neighbours properly and to resolve any issues amicably.