Need perspective: Am I overreacting, or are my apartment neighbours crossing boundaries?

Venting

I’m posting this out of frustration and genuine helplessness.
We are a couple with a small child living in a 2BHK apartment building with only 6 houses total. Out of the 6, 4 are owner-occupied and 2 are rented—including ours.
Over time, I’ve started feeling like tenants here are treated differently from owners.
Incident 1: Water issue (2 months ago)
There’s a lady living directly above us (Aunty 1), who is also the building secretary this year.
Initially she was very friendly—offering help and advice. I gave her the benefit of the doubt.
One day she entered my house, walked straight into my kitchen, checked my sink/drain area, and asked whether we throw kitchen waste into the sink because a drain in the building was clogged.
I calmly told her no.
The next day, there was no water in the entire building. No drinking water, no water to wash, nothing.
Important point: I have a small child and had just returned from work.
Later I found out she had informed all the owners in advance about the water shutdown—but not the tenants.
There’s a WhatsApp group with all the women in the building, and another tenant asked there why there was no water. That’s how I found out prior notice was given only to owners.
I confronted Aunty 1 and asked why she didn’t inform us despite literally being in my house the previous day. She had no real answer.
Another owner (Aunty 2) then said:
“Don’t use words like common sense.”
The group is “only for owners, not tenants.”
That really didn’t sit right with me.
Since then, I’ve kept my distance.

Incident 2: Diaper garbage issue (today)
Today, Aunty 1’s son and Aunty 2’s son rang the bell.
They asked whether I had thrown my baby’s used diaper in the garbage.
Apparently stray dogs tore open the garbage bag outside and the diaper waste was scattered, causing bad smell.
For context:
My maid has been disposing of the garbage for months.
I had just returned home after a night duty shift.
I said I wasn’t sure if the maid had disposed it then, but I apologized and said I’d make sure this doesn’t happen again.
I thought that was the end of it.
At 10 PM, Aunty 2 and Aunty 3 rang our video doorbell.
My husband wasn’t home.
I was alone with my sleeping child.
They asked me to come downstairs.
I refused because my child was asleep alone.
So they came upstairs.
Aunty 2 asked whether I had seen the mess caused by the dogs and told me to clean it immediately.
I kept calm and said:
I’m alone with my child
My child is sleeping
I’ll arrange for cleaning first thing in the morning
I also apologized again.
She then told me to buy a separate closed dustbin and keep it in the common area just for my garbage.
I told her I would stop using that area for disposal altogether.
Then they left.

Important context about the building
There is:
No watchman
No common cleaner
No common garbage bin

My questions
Was it unreasonable for me to say cleaning could wait until morning instead of doing it at 10 PM while alone with a sleeping child?
How much responsibility is actually mine here if stray dogs tore open the garbage?
Why am I being asked to buy a separate garbage bin when this seems like a building-wide infrastructure issue?
Most importantly—how do I deal with neighbours like this, especially Aunty 2, who speaks with zero respect?
I’m open to constructive criticism.
If I’m wrong anywhere, I genuinely want to know.

Posted Jul 4, 2026, 6:32 PM UTC

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