remember i having a neighbour crazily insensitive. She said i was playing too loudly causing vibrations in her house and she blame me for breaking a cup.How is that possible? i am living in a newly built HDB, dont tell me the quality of walls is really taht bad. Sometimes i feel that the neighbours who don't appreciate music are being paranoid.
Ok firstly, it is not 100% fair to blame your neighbours for being overly sensitive or "paranoid" because just like us, they have every right to voice out their opinions about your drumming, either negative or positive.
As I mentioned in one of my earlier posts, the law is on your side as long as you're not doing anything intentionally to cause duress to them or to "strive" to be a nuisance. There'll definitely be unreasonable neighbours around you, but the onus is on you to work things out with your neighbours and come to a compromise with them. There's no point in whining about it because even though the police and HDB cannot do anything within their power to stop you from playing within a reasonable time frame (iirc, 10am - 10pm), you will get annoyed to no end from countless visits from the police, the RC, and the HDB. I'm speaking from experience here, and the only way out of it is to come a compromise with the RC, HDB and the neighbour.
Side note (or an update here), I received yet another visit from 2 police officers the other day who claimed that they were here on a "complain from someone in my block", with regards to my drumming.
Because one of them, a sergeant, was extremely rude and downright condescending, I shot an email to the police feedback unit, HDB, and RC, including his rank, name, time of visit and purpose of visit. I'll update again if and when they reply to my email. I did question their repeated visits, on grounds that as a governmental body, they should have the resources to check on their past records, which should in theory, show that the HDB and RC have both settled this issue through a mediation session between them, and the parties involved.
My advice to anyone who's on the receiving end of neighbourly complains? As tempting as getting your whole band over to jam and create an insane amount of noise may be, that would signal the end of your home practices because that would constitute as a public nuisance, and get you into trouble that you would not want. Do not confront your neighbour too, as that could be used against you as harassment. Once tempers are raised and words start flying, one wrong word can be used against you as assault (a threat made to him/her). Either way, you're on the losing end. Ask for a mediation session with the RC, and if you receive any calls from town council or HDB, talk and explain to them nicely. If any compromise has been made, or any mediation session made concrete, ask for something in BLACK AND WHITE. This will save you a ton of trouble and time the next time he/she complains about you and the police decides to visit you again.
Mods... possible to sticky this thread? I think there're a lot of HDB musicians around here on SOFT who may be facing the same problem, and I think this would be very beneficial to them.
