When you live in an HDB, neighbourly disputes can be unavoidable sometimes, especially when “territory” or “property” is involved.
After all, we are all primal creatures at our core and we tend to defend our territories and stuff as fiercely as cats do.
However, things came to a head when a particularly green-fingered resident at the HDB Block 552 on Serangoon North Ave 3 called the police on her neighbour just because he moved her potted plants from the shared corridor outside his unit back to her home.
Turning the Shared Corridor into a “Forest”
The 68-year-old hairdresser, Ms Zhu, recently contacted Lianhe Wanbao to complain about the dispute between herself and her neighbour, a family of three who had stayed in the adjacent unit for more than 20 years.
When she moved to the HDB flat three years ago, Ms Zhu placed more than 20 potted plants in the corridor outside her unit. Naturally, she ran out of space and had to place her pots outside her neighbour’s utility cabinet as well.
For two years, Ms Zhu claimed that the neighbours didn’t have an issue with it, but once the pandemic hit, her neighbour (figuratively) started a fire over her plants and that’s when things really escalated to a whole new level.
We Didn’t Start the Fire!
…said everyone who started one.
During the interview, Ms Zhu said that she received a notice from the town council last year that she should remove some of her potted plants from the corridor, so she moved the plants back to the corridor right in front of her home.
Unfortunately, plants need sunlight and the corridor outside her home doesn’t have any.
Thus, she said that she will occasionally place a few of her plants on her neighbour’s side for a few hours at a time just so they could get the sunlight they need to stay green and healthy.
However, on the morning of 12 March, she found out that the pots she placed outside her neighbour’s house have been moved back to the front of her house.
Suspecting that it’s her neighbour’s doing, she knocked on the neighbour’s door angrily while demanding an explanation.
Her neighbour’s son claimed that his father moved the plants and that the family has tolerated her antics for a long time.
In response, Ms Zhu retorted that the corridor is a shared corridor and they shouldn’t have moved her plants without permission.
Tension ran high, and eventually, the police were called to the scene.
On the other side of the story…
The reporter at Lianhe Wanbao reached out to the wife of Ms Zhu’s neighbour for comment to get the other side of the story.
She said that the family has always been disgruntled with Ms Zhu and her huge collection of potted plants, turning the corridor into a “forest”.
However, she denied that she was the one who reported to the town council about the plants which led to the notice being served to Ms Zhu.
She continued that since her neighbour seems like the sort of person that would raise hell over the smallest of issues, the family has never dared to talk to her about her plants.
They silently harboured the resentment instead.
But enough is enough – one day, her husband decided to move Ms Zhu’s plants back to her home.
What they didn’t expect though is their neighbour’s “overreaction”, leading to the police being called.
Who’s really at fault here? We’ll leave it up to you to decide.
Featured Image: Google Maps
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