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Upstairs neighbour super noisy every night, what are my legal options?

HDB neighbour above drags furniture and lets kids run past midnight nightly. Talked to them nicely twice, no change. Getting desperate, cannot sleep for work. What actually works here?
Anonymous asker ·Asked on 17 hours ago ·622 views ·4 answers
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4 contributors answered

Anonymous contributor Beginner First-hand experience
Mediation actually worked for me, and I say this as someone who went in convinced it was a useless waste of an afternoon. Having a neutral third party in the room made my upstairs neighbour genuinely realise the impact, because to them the kids running was just normal family life, they had no idea it was rattling my ceiling until 1am. We went from nightly stomping to a real effort to keep it down after 10pm, and relations even improved. The key is to bring your specific noise log so you can cite concrete incidents with dates and times, not a vague 'always so noisy', which just sounds like a personality clash. Log first, then mediate.
Contractor Uncle Boon Beginner First-hand experience Run small construction outfit, dealing with WSH, foreign worker levy and clients who bargain like siao.
Manage your expectations, because the system here is slow and mostly about nudging behaviour rather than instant fines, so if you're hoping someone shows up to issue a penalty tonight, that's not how it works. Start the paper trail now, log every incident, because whichever route you eventually take, town council, mediation, or the tribunal, they all run on your documented evidence. And do confirm the latest on the newer Community Relations Unit, because the government updated the noise-enforcement setup fairly recently and there are stronger powers for serious cases than there used to be. Check the official info for the current process, don't rely on older forum threads describing the old system.
Property Agent Fiona Beginner First-hand experience Licensed agent focusing on condo rental, help expats and locals not kena cheated by unrealistic asking price.
Record with timestamps, or you have basically no case. Without evidence, every authority you approach will just default to 'please talk to your neighbour', because to them it's your unverified complaint against the neighbour's denial. My log of three straight weeks of documented midnight bangs, with dates, times and short audio clips, is the ONLY reason the town council finally took me seriously and acted instead of fobbing me off. Use your phone, note the time, keep clips short but clear. It's tedious to build but it flips the whole dynamic, suddenly you're the reasonable one with proof and they're the one with a pattern to explain. Start the log tonight.
Anonymous contributor Beginner First-hand experience
Neighbour noise is horrible, been there. The realistic ladder: 1) keep a noise log (dates, times, type of noise) and record audio/video with timestamps, 2) approach them once more calmly in writing, 3) go to the town council and HDB, they can issue advisories, 4) mediation at the Community Mediation Centre (free, voluntary but often effective), 5) as a newer route there's the Community Disputes Resolution framework and a dedicated Community Relations Unit that can step in for severe cases. Court (Community Disputes Resolution Tribunal) is the last resort and needs strong evidence, hence the log. Manage expectations, this is slow. Please check the current process with your town council and the official CDRT/CRU info, the enforcement setup has been changing recently.

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