Debated in Parliament on 8 Jul 2019.
Mr Alex Yam asked the Minister for National Development (a) how many cases of neighbour disputes have been reported to the HDB from 2014 till date; (b) how many have been resolved; and (c) what recourse is available to residents who have been subject to persistent and prolonged harassment by neighbours.
Since 2014, HDB has received about 15,600 cases of feedback relating to disamenities caused by neighbours, or an average of about 2,800 cases per year. Many of such cases are settled privately. We thus do not have statistics on how many of these cases have been resolved.
In cases where neighbours are unable to resolve their differences, they can approach the Community Mediation Centre (CMC), which provides trained mediators to help neighbours arrive at mutually acceptable solutions. HDB also refers cases to the CMC. Since 2014, CMC has mediated 40 to 50 of such cases each year, of which over 70% were resolved.
For long-standing and intractable cases where neighbours are unable to resolve their disputes by voluntary mediation or other informal means, the aggrieved parties can bring a claim to the Community Disputes Resolution Tribunals (CDRT) as a last resort. The CDRT judge can order parties to attend mandatory mediation in the Courts or at the CMC, to attend counselling, or fix the case for hearing.
As for cases where harassment is a factor, the harassed neighbour may apply to Court for a Protection Order.
To prevent disputes from arising, we encourage all HDB residents to be neighbourly, considerate and exercise mutual respect.
PAPERCUTS