As Singapore’s high-rise noisy neighbour feuds turn deadly, is mediation the solution?

October 28, 2025

A fatal dispute, reportedly over noise, has sparked a debate on the existing rules and enforcement measures for community dispute resolution

Pang Kok Meng, 65, lives with his 91-year-old mother in a public housing flat in Geylang, a township in central Singapore. For more than a decade, he has been feuding with a neighbour living one floor below.

“Whenever there’s a little noise – if someone’s high heels make clacking sounds, or if I drop something on the floor – he retaliates by banging on his ceiling,” he told This Week in Asia. “He does it every day, from day to night, it scares my mother to tears.”

Pang is far from alone. Singapore saw an average of 2,500 reports related to noise per month in the first half of the year, according to a joint statement issued by the law and national development ministries on September 27.

More than 80 per cent of the city state’s population live in public flats – a high-rise model adopted in the 1960s in response to limited land area and a rapidly expanding population.

For Pang, his worries over the years-long stand-off with his neighbour intensified after hearing about a recent tragedy in the north of the country, where a man reportedly killed a mother of two over a long-standing noise row involving the victim’s children.

Koh Ah Hwee, 66, was charged with murder last month after he allegedly stabbed Nguyen Phuong Tra, 30, to death in a communal a corridor of their flat block in Yishun. Neighbours said the two households had been at odds for years.

“When I read about the incident, I felt so worried. I’m scared that he will snap one day,” Pang said of his own neighbour.

The retiree, who is his mother’s main carer, has previously appealed to local members of parliament, filed multiple police reports and even took his neighbour to court in 2015. Although his neighbour was ordered to pay S$500 (HK$3,000) and cease any intentional banging on the ceiling, the disturbances continued.

Pang called for stronger enforcement, such as eviction orders for severe and long-running noise feuds. “I don’t have the bandwidth to hire another lawyer,” he said. “I feel so helpless, I’m suffering in silence.”

Greater enforcement?

The Yishun murder case has ignited a debate over whether Singapore’s existing framework for managing community disputes lacks sufficient enforcement measures.

The government champions an amicable approach, encouraging bickering residents to approach community leaders and sign up for free mediation sessions.

The town council of northeastern estate Sengkang told This Week in Asia it had been able to resolve most neighbourly disputes peacefully and advised parties involved in long-running cases to apply for mediation.

But less than 30 per cent of cases filed at a centre for community mediation proceeded to mediation, according to the government statement on September 27, largely due to the unwillingness of one party to participate. From January to August this year, 166 mediation sessions were held out of 1,106 disputes between neighbours registered with the centre.

In the Yishun case, Nguyen had applied for mediation, but Koh did not accept the invitation.

In November last year, Singapore’s parliament passed amendments to a bill on community dispute resolution, including the formation of a unit to investigate serious noise complaints. The unit has the authority to deploy noise sensors, issue directives requiring attendance at mediation and hand out abatement orders.

Those found guilty of failing to attend a mediation could face a fine of up to S$1,500, while those who do not comply with abatement orders risk fines of up to S$10,000. The unit is currently being piloted in the eastern estate of Tampines.

The bill was also revised to allow settlements reached through mediation to be converted into court orders, provided that both parties consent, allowing for quicker legal recourse.

William Wan, chairman of the Community Advisory Panel on Neighbourhood Noise, told This Week in Asia that the revised law was likely sufficient to curb disputes, as both mediation attendance and outcomes would now be enforceable.

In November, then culture, community and youth minister Edwin Tong said he hoped that the revamped framework would have a self-moderating effect. “The community will know the boundaries, and then begin to self-police,” said Tong, who is now the law minister.

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