Imagine the following: You have just moved into your new HDB apartment. It’s everything you’ve been looking for in a new home. You are congratulating yourself on a good purchase when you suddenly hear barking dogs next door and loud popping noises upstairs.
From your open living room window, you can smell the smoke of second-hand cigarettes. If you think things can’t get worse, someone drops a glass bottle out of the window from above and it shatters on your windowsill.
Of course, this is an extreme scenario, but you understand what it takes.
Singaporeans often forget to look for bad neighbors before buying a new home, but it can be a costly mistake.
Here’s what you can do to avoid such a nightmare:
1. Visit the property at different times of the day
It is important to visit your potential home in the evening after work. Then most of the neighbors will be at home so you can gauge how noisy they are.
When you hear someone singing at full volume on their karaoke system or hearing children screaming while they play, you need to consider whether you can live with that.
With many Singaporeans working from home or studying at home these days, it’s a good idea to stop by in the mornings and afternoons to get a better feel for the noise level.
If you are a non-smoker and are concerned about secondhand smoke, this tip can help you find out if your neighbors smoke.
If you frequently smell cigarette smoke entering the property during your visits, one of your neighbors may be a heavy smoker.
This may mean that you will be exposed to frequent secondhand smoke after moving in.
In addition, if you visit several times, you can catch an upstairs neighbor dropping high-rise buildings, such as the example with a glass bottle.
Hopefully no such neighbors live above the unit, but you want to know if there are any before purchasing the apartment.
2. Look at the areas in front of your neighbors’ units
A quick look at the neighbors’ front doors reveals a lot about it.
If they have multiple pairs of shoes lying around messing up the sidewalk, or if they use the hall railing as a clothes horse, they can be inconsiderate people.
It’s even worse when they clog the sidewalk with bicycles or a whole jungle of potted plants. Imagine having to walk through this section of the walkway every time you pass.
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HDB corridors with no spacing of at least 1.2 meters will not only cause inconvenience, but also prevent evacuation and paramedics from getting through in an emergency.
Would you like to live next to neighbors without the usual courtesy or concern for the safety of others?
Speaking of things in the corridor, if your potential neighbor’s door has a large pile of trash and a bad smell emanates from their house, they’re probably a hoarder.
With all the stuff in the corridor, you can bet the actual unit is filled to the brim with more. That is extremely dangerous.
The clutter is also likely to attract pests such as cockroaches or rats that can invade your neighboring unit.
3. Check out the common areas
A pristine hallway and a clean garbage disposal speak for considerate and hygienic neighbors.
On the other hand, if you see:
- Cigarette butts and used handkerchiefs are lying around in the common hallway
- A rubbish chute covered in leftover food and surrounded by rubbish that didn’t even make it down the chute
It is a clear sign that some of the neighbors are not middle class.
In such a scenario, think twice, especially if the device you are considering is near the garbage disposal site. The leftover food attracts pests which, as mentioned earlier, can get into your nearby home.
4. Chat with the current owners (if the device is a resale)
Ask them about their neighbors. If they have neighbors from hell, they won’t tell you. However, this is still a helpful question.
If the neighbors are fantastic, the salesperson will likely praise how friendly or tidy or considerate they are as a selling point. If the seller is hesitant, it could be a red flag.
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If the seller has trouble saying even one good thing about his neighbor, that’s a red flag. After all, if the seller distracts us not to answer the question, you know something is wrong with the neighbors.
The less direct way would be to ask the seller why they are selling the device.
If they move because of bad neighbors, don’t reveal it, but you can gauge whether the reason they give is valid.
If the current owners move out after just a year or two and the reason they cite doesn’t work, that’s a bad sign.
If you want to live happily in your new HDB device, there are four home-hunting tips to follow to spot bad neighbors before you make them your own.
This article was first published in 99.co
