When she bought her Toa Payoh three-room flat, which is near a bus stop, hawker centre and park, she thought she had found her dream home.
Now, she regrets moving in because her neighbour is a hoarder.
The woman, who wanted to be known as Mrs Chen, 50, told The New Paper: "If I knew I would be living next to a hoarder, I wouldn't have moved here."
Mrs Chen, who moved to Block 59, Toa Payoh Lorong 5 in 2013, is an immediate neighbour of the hoarder, whom she described as "fierce".
"We're all afraid of him as he shouts at us when we try to talk to him about his hoarding.
"I even offered to help him clean up but he refused."
Another neighbour, who wanted to be known only as Miss Tan, told TNP: "When you try to look into his home, he gives you a hostile stare."
Miss Tan recently e-mailed TNP after reading about action taken against other hoarders.
She has been living since 1968 in her Toa Payoh home, which is opposite the hoarder's block, and has seen him accumulating things for about 10 years.
Alone
When TNP visited his first-storey flat on Monday evening, the hoarder, who declined to be named, did not let the team into his flat.
Speaking to TNP at the door, the hoarder, 71, who spoke in Mandarin, said he lives alone and is unemployed.
"I can't work any more so I just go around picking up things to sell. If I find something usable, I bring it home so that I don't have to spend any money."
Piles of plastic bags stacked on top of one another were spotted in the living room.
"I sleep in the living room because there's no more space in the bedroom," the hoarder said.
"Of course, it's uncomfortable living like this, but what can I do? I'm poor."
Outside the flat, the corridor was cluttered with bottles, chairs and plastic bags with flies circling around them, while trolleys and metal frames lay behind the flat's back door.
The windows were also covered with styrofoam boards to prevent people from looking in.
When asked about the clutter along the corridor, the hoarder got defensive and said: "If people can put bikes outside their home, why can't I put my stuff here?"
The clutter used to be so bad that Mrs Chen once took matters into her own hands.
"I secretly threw his stuff away but when he found out, he threw away my clothes hangers," she claimed.
Miss Tan, who walks past the corridor every day to get to the bus stop, said: "There used to only be a narrow path for people to pass through. It looked like a junkyard and was very unsightly."
The clutter also emitted a foul smell. Madam Chan, 83, who lives four units away from the hoarder, said: "When the wind is strong, I can smell the odour coming from his home."
But Mrs Chen is most concerned that the clutter might be a fire hazard.
Unfazed by his neighbours' complaints, the hoarder said: "I own the house so I can do whatever I like.
"It's not affecting them so they have no right to complain."
Mr Lee Boon Leng, executive manager of corporate services at Bishan-Toa Payoh Town Council, said: "The town council has reminded him in the past to remove and stop storing his items in the common area.
"We have issued him two notices of irregularities last year and one this year, following complaints from the neighbouring units."
A check with the Ministry of Social and Family Development's Social Services Offices showed that the elderly man is not receiving any assistance under its schemes.
The man said he wants to remain independent. He said: "I don't want any help, I want to depend on myself. Even if it takes a long time, I will slowly clear out the flat (by) myself."
Recent hoarding cases
Toa Payoh (February 2015)
A mother and son pair were such serious hoarders that their clutter spilled over to the unit two storeys below, which belonged to the woman's mother-in-law.
When the authorities tried to clear the flat, the pair created such a scene that they were both arrested. A total of 10.5 tonnes of trash was cleared.
Sengkang (October 2014)
Filling the storeroom and three bedrooms within a year, a man's hoarding got so out of hand that he had to climb over piles of items to get to the kitchen. It took volunteers 10 hours to clear his four-room flat.
Jalan Bukit Ho Swee (March 2014)
An elderly rag-and-bone woman accumulated so much junk along the common corridor that her neighbour was afraid it would be a fire hazard. The clutter was eventually cleared by the Tanjong Pagar Town Council.
Serangoon (February 2014)
A woman's hoarding caused the door of her three-room flat to be completely blocked. She spent most of her time outside her home and used the public toilet below her flat.
Why do people hoard?
Loneliness is one of the main reasons behind a hoarder's behaviour, said Dr Lim Boon Leng, a psychiatrist running his own practice.
"People who are lonely tend to display hoarding behaviour as they project relationships onto objects rather than people."
He said that hoarding can affect anyone, regardless of age.
"Hoarding is a psychiatric condition which is insidious and gets worse as years go by.
"People typically think of hoarders as elderly people who live alone but that's not true.
"It can affect young people too."
Dr Lim said there is little neighbours can do to help a hoarder.
"The very nature of the condition means that talking to the hoarder probably won't be of much help.
"The best thing to do is to report (the issue) to the authorities so that they can get proper mental help for the hoarder."
This article was first published on Feb 26, 2015.
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