PUBLISHED ONOctober 30, 2024 3:56 AMByDana LeongUnable to handle the constant smell of cigarette smoke wafting into her unit, a resident in Bukit Panjang resorted to filing a court order against her neighbour.
The 56-year-old woman surnamed Zhong, who lives on the ninth floor of Block 241 Bukit Panjang Ring Road, complained of her downstairs neighbour's incessant smoking habits in an interview with Shin Min Daily News.
She said cigarette smoke would drift into her unit from 8pm to 2am daily, and was worried about the detriment to her health from constantly inhaling second-hand smoke.
In 2021, Zhong even recorded her neighbour's "smoking schedule", which amounted to over 150 times in the span of two weeks.
Zhong also lives with her 78-year-old mother who suffers from a heart condition.
"We can't sleep well on most days. When we wake up, our hearts race and we feel very uncomfortable," she said.
Zhong attempted to negotiate with her neighbour on multiple occasions but to no avail.
Left with no choice, she was forced to file a court order against the latter.
The Community Disputes Resolution Tribunals granted the court order in June last year, which prohibited all forms of smoking in her neighbour's unit.
The court order stated that the unit's residents and visitors would have to smoke at the ground floor.
Even after the court order was issued, Zhong said that the situation did not improve.
To collect evidence of her neighbour's continued smoking, Zhong put up posters at the lift landings on the seventh and ninth floors of her block, asking her neighbours for help.
She detailed her predicament on the posters and attached her contact details, offering a reward for any useful information that could help build her case to enforce the court order against her neighbour.
Speaking to Shin Min, an anonymous resident living on the eighth floor said she could smell some cigarette smoke from the unit, but was not bothered by it.
Another resident surnamed Du, who lives on the seventh floor said he was unaware of the posters or smell as he had just returned from overseas.
AsiaOne has reached out to the Holland-Bukit Panjang Town Council for more information.
For more original AsiaOne articles, visit here.
