BAN mahjong sessions after 11pm in residential estates.

That's what Madam Mag Heng is calling for.

The 28-year-old housewife has nothing against mahjong.

But she feels that such late-night sessions should be banned. 'The noise is a disturbance to neighbours,' she said.

For the past three years, her next-door neighbour's frequent 24-hour mahjong sessions have driven her and her family nuts, she said.

'They play almost every day, sometimes past midnight - even for three days non-stop,' she claimed.

She's so upset that she wants to move out of her three-room HDB flat in Bukit Batok.

But she can't. She and her husband cannot sell their resale flat as they have taken a loan under HDB's Housing Grant Scheme, which requires them to live in the flat for at least five years. They bought the flat in September 2004.

Madam Heng is at her wit's end. She has confronted her neighbours, called the police and complained to the HDB - all to no avail, she claimed.

She and her family moved into their flat at Bukit Batok East Avenue 5 in December 2004. She lives with her 29-year-old husband and two sons, aged 3 and 11 months.

Initially, all was quiet.

Madam Heng vividly remembers the day the peace was shattered. It was 22 Apr 2005, her elder son's first birthday.

But she dismissed it as a normal mahjong session, common in an HDB estate.

Until the sessions went on 'every other day', she claimed, and often into the wee hours of the morning. On some nights, it kept them up, she claimed.

Their neighbours are a middle-aged couple living with their children, Madam Heng said.

She said she had confronted them several times, but her pleas have so far fallen on deaf ears. And relations have soured as a result, she added.

She said she called the police once when the noise got unbearable in the day, but claimed she was told they could not take any action unless the noise continued after 11pm.

After 11pm, she called the police again. This time, she claimed the police officers told her neighbours to keep the noise down.

'But the moment the police left, they started again,' she alleged.

Madam Heng said she also complained to the town council and the HDB. She claimed an HDB officer visited the neighbour's flat a few times.

STILL PLAYING

When The New Paper went there last Wednesday, Madam Heng's neighbours were playing mahjong.

Even with the main door and windows closed in Madam Heng's flat, we could clearly hear the shuffling of mahjong tiles. The door to the neighbour's flat was open.

When this reporter went there, a middle-aged lady, who was playing mahjong, identified herself as the flat's owner but declined to speak to us further.

There was no one in the other units on the same floor. A resident who lives two floors below said she too can hear the noise, but it does not bother her.

Madam Heng said she tries to stay out as much as she can. When her technician husband returns from work, he would take the family out. They also do not invite guests to their home because of the noise.

Madam Heng said: 'I don't know how long I can take it. We just want to move out.'

- Vivien Chan, newsroom intern

This article was first published in The New Paper on July 17, 2008.