Landed property owners resigned to parking situation, urge people to be considerate

SINGAPORE: The tussle for turf within landed housing estates has motorists defending their right to park on public roads after an incident in March reignited discussion on the evergreen issue.

After local host Jade Seah received a note from a resident when she parked along a public road inside a landed estate, she took to social media on Mar 21 to air her frustration. The note from the resident read: “Please do not park here. Let those who stay here, park here. Thank you.” 

In response, she wrote in her Instagram Stories: “You do not own the land outside your house. This is public property that anyone is at liberty to park at.” 

This led to a contributor to the STOMP website highlighting similar encounters at the Meragi Close estate. Residents from the estate in Simei are said to have left notes on cars that don’t belong to residents or guests of residents.

One such note posted on the website told motorists to “park at your HDB car park”, as Meragi Close is “short of parking space for residents and guests of residents”. 

Vehicles are allowed to park on both sides of the road at private estates, as long as there are no lines on either side of the road and the lane divider is a single non-continuous white line. 

But automotive platform motorist.sg advises drivers to park their vehicles “in a manner” that does not block any entrances and the flow of traffic. 

CARS DAMAGED

Motorists and home owners have constantly locked horns over the parking situation at landed estates, with cars getting damaged in some instances.

In 2020, a 76-year-old woman was fined for scratching an Audi A4 with a key after being upset that the car was parked near her home in Serangoon Gardens for the Chinese New Year celebrations. 

Yet, in some instances, the damaged cars belong to the landed estate home owners. One said in a Facebook comment that his own car tyre was punctured because he parked on the road for a short while – even though he had parked in front of his own house. 

While home owners at several landed estates who spoke to CNA on Tuesday (Apr 4) expressed frustration, many are resigned to the situation.

At a landed estate next to the Dakota HDB blocks, a resident who has lived there for 13 years said “lots of these cars and trucks park along the roadside of landed areas as there are no lane markings”. 

The 46-year-old, who declined to be named, said he has to park one of his two cars at a nearby HDB multi-storey car park after his car was “damaged on more than one instance” by the trucks. His other car is parked inside his property.

He also pointed out in a Facebook comment that he pays S$190 for season parking at the HDB car park, compared with S$110 that HDB home owners fork out. 

“We don’t own the road (at our landed estates), but I got tired of jostling with HDB dwellers, and cars end up getting knocked ... Just park my second car elsewhere and mull over the bigger issues of life in Singapore,” he added.  

Some home owners at landed estates also use their rubbish bins to block the roads, causing “genuine visitors” to be unable to find parking space, wrote another private home owner on Facebook, who urged others to “look at two sides of the story”. 

“My estate also faced (this) problem too. Those landed owners living further inside the road tend to drive and park their car outside our house to save cost (by) using feeder bus and (caused) us so much inconvenience,” the home owner said.

CONGESTED ROADS NEAR SCHOOLS 

Home owners have to wrangle with congested roads in the morning and afternoon at another landed estate in Bukit Timah. 

Motorists dropping off and picking up their children from Nanyang Primary School tend to clog the lanes around King’s Road, especially from 12.45pm onwards as the students end lessons around 1pm, said a resident who wanted to be known as Mr Ng.

“The cars queue (along) the whole road, you cannot move out. When you want to exit your house, you have to tell the cars to wait,” the retiree in his 70s said. 

“This happens every day. In the morning, there are a lot of cars too, but it’s not so bad. They tend to just drop off and drive off.”

Mr Ng said these motorists should wait at the HDB car park on Queen’s Road, which is an adjacent lane, as it’s “always empty”. There is also a grace period of about 10 minutes, he added.

He has been a resident in the area for almost 30 years, and said some neighbours have moved out “due to the parking situation”. 

The situation has become worse in the last few years, and he told CNA he has approached the school to seek a compromise. 

“They said: ‘You must be more patient because it’s a short while only.’ So we have to bear with it. Complain also no use,” he said, but added that the situation has improved “a bit” recently. 

“MANAGEABLE” SITUATION 

Residents at other landed estates in Singapore were more forgiving of errant parking. 

At Faber Heights in Clementi, one resident who declined to be named told CNA that bird watchers tend to park at the end of the lane that links up to the Ulu Pandan park connector, but the parking situation has been “manageable”. 

“We are (isolated) enough that it discourages drivers from parking here. But our road is also wide, and the porches of the houses are big enough to fit cars. Most home owners here park inside their house. We are lucky in that sense,” he said. 

A 62-year-old resident at a small MacPherson estate said he “is not the sort who believes only I can park (on the public road) there if I live there”. 

The road in front of his house is a cul-de-sac, which means there is no through road. One side of the lane is “always parked with cars”, leaving residents to use just one lane, and “you might need to wait to manoeuvre your car to go in and out”, said Mr EK Ong, who has lived there for more than 30 years. 

Parking disputes in his area often involve commercial vehicles, he said. These vehicles are bigger and block his view when he drives out of his house, posing a danger.

In one instance, a vehicle was parked such that it blocked part of his gate, leaving him “no space to go out” should there be an emergency. 

Mr Ong has tried telling his neighbours about the HDB car parks nearby, where they can park additional vehicles. But as the car parks are about 100m to 200m away, “they may be lazy”, he said. 

Another concern, he added, is whether the public roads outside the landed homes are “designed to be road or car park”. 

“It’s an urban design issue (for) either the Urban Redevelopment Authority or the Land Transport Authority. They don’t make it clear whether it’s designed to be a road or car park,” he said, adding that he has suggested they “draw a line so no one can park”. 

“It’s not so much about which is right or wrong, but it’s an emotional and social issue.”

Mr Ong said "fortunately" his estate is a mature one with older neighbours. 

“Older folks tend to be more tolerant because we know each other quite well. … We need to talk and communicate rather than vent,” he said.