Jade Seah defends right to park along private estates after ‘self-entitled’ homeowner leaves note on her windshield

We’re not starting a cult but some followers on Instagram would be nice. Thank you.

Does living in a landed home automatically give you exclusive rights to parking along the roads outside your property?

Not according to Singaporean host and model Jade Seah, who took to Instagram on Mar. 21 to call out the “self-entitled” behaviour of such homeowners.

The 39-year-old shared a photo of a handwritten note that had been left on her car windshield, after she had parked along a road near a private estate.

The note read: “Please do not park here. Let those who stay here, park here. Thank you.”

According to Jade, she had “taken care to park legally along a road with no line markings, and not obstructing anyone’s front gate nor traffic.”

She went on to say:

“When you own landed property, you own the land you paid for. That usually includes your house; and some people choose to have swimming pools, gardens and parking spaces. You do not own the land outside your house. That is public property that anyone is at liberty to park at; and that includes vans, lorries, motorbikes and other cars.”

According to vehicle site motorist.sg, Jade is right—vehicles are allowed to park 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.

Intimidated by private homeowners

In another Instagram story, Jade also shared her annoyance that such homeowners “bully others into submission”.

Her brother, who drives a van, is apparently afraid to park in roads where “he has either been warned by home owners or has had his vehicle scratched”.

Jade too, had experienced her tyres being slashed and her front bonnet scratched.

She also said that a woman had once shouted at her from the porch because she had parked in “her lot”, and she’s been afraid to park there since.

Jade then asked her followers if they shared similar feelings, and whether they had suggestions on how to stop this behaviour.

Most agree with her

Jade shared a good number of responses from her followers, most of whom agreed with her point of view.

Some also shared their experiences of seeing private homeowners use objects like cones, flower pots, or rubbish bins to reserve the space outside their homes for their personal parking use.

One even recounted seeing an entire road blocked off so that their children could use it for cycling.

A few suggested getting the authorities involved.

One respondent, who identified themselves as a landed homeowner, also shared Jade’s sentiments about the sense of entitlement some of her fellow homeowners had.

One respondent, who clarified that she agreed with Jade, brought up an opposing viewpoint that others might hold, which is that those who can afford a car should be able to pay for parking, instead of parking for free by the road.

This prompted Jade to upload another Instagram story detailing her response to this opinion.

While she said there was “no need to justify” why she had chosen to park there, she went on to explain that she lived in an area that did not have multi-storey parking or legal parking.

Nevertheless she said, even if someone was “too cheap” to pay for parking, or was visiting someone in the area, the parking was free “for all”.

“Regardless of race, language or religion,” she said, citing the Singapore national pledge.

“Or address, or socio-economic class or reason for parking there,” she added.

A perennial issue

Such clashes between private homeowners and drivers in Singapore are not new.

One driver received a much ruder note stating: “You don’t belong this neighbourhood. Please remove your car,” after she parked ​​along Chuan Walk, a private residential estate in Lorong Chuan.

Actress Cynthia Koh found her car vandalised, with one tyre punctured, after she parked her car at a private housing estate.

But territorial behaviour it seems, isn’t just confined to private homeowners.

Just ask this guy, who received a note asking him to park his motorcycle elsewhere, after he occupied another motorcyclist’s personal favourite lot at a public car park in Pasir Ris.

All images via jadeseah/Instagram.