So my upstairs neighbor recently did some major renovation work. Standard HDB life, right? Fine, I sucked it up for weeks. But towards the end, they were literally drilling and hammer-drilling way past the allowed HDB hours—we are talking 8:30pm to 9pm kind of ridiculous timing. My whole ceiling was vibrating. After a few days of this, I couldn’t take it anymore, went upstairs, and politely asked them to stick to the permitted hours because people need to rest.
Big mistake. Huge.
Ever since that day, it feels like they have initiated an all-out passive-aggressive revenge campaign against me.
Now, every single night like clockwork, at around 3:00am to 3:30am, I will hear a massive FLUSH—and not just a normal flush, but like they are violently yanking the handle. Immediately after that? The real nightmare starts. Heavy, deliberate stomping and straight-up jumping on the floor right above my master bedroom. It’s not accidental movement; you can literally hear the intentional thud-thud-thud landing. It feels like they are doing plyometrics or cardio workouts at 3am just to spite me.
My sleep schedule is completely wrecked. I am walking around like a zombie at work, drinking 4 cups of kopi-C every day just to function.
What I’ve tried so far:
- Talking to them again: Went up once at 3:15am while it was happening. Knocked on the door, total silence inside. They pretended no one was home.
- Talking to Town Council / HDB: TC says neighbor noise issues inside the flat fall under HDB or police, but HDB basically told me to “resolve amicably” first or seek community mediation.
I know about the Community Disputes Resolution Tribunals (CDRT) and CMC mediation, but everyone knows mediation only works if both parties actually show up and care. This neighbor clearly doesn’t give a damn.
Is my only option left to buy a ceiling vibrator or a sound bar and blast back? (Just kidding, HDB officers please don’t look for me).
Seriously, fellow Singaporeans, has anyone successfully dealt with this kind of childish, passive-aggressive neighbor harassment before? Should I call the police for night-time noise disturbance, or will they just ask me to file a report and leave?
Any advice or hacks would be greatly appreciated before I go insane. Sibei sian.