A Singapore family court recently issued a partial domestic exclusion order against a woman who had allegedly been forcefully entering her adult brother’s room at odd hours of the night to clean.

On October 31st, two Singaporean siblings obtained court orders against each other following a bizarre legal dispute that left the judge scratching their head. A woman managed to get a protection order against her brother who had reportedly physically assaulted her, while he got a domestic order banning her from entering his room, which happens to be why he assaulted her in the first place. A third sibling told the court that tensions between the two had been rising for years, particularly because their sister would come into the brother’s room in the middle of the night to clean it, infringing on his privacy and preventing him from sleeping. One day, the man just snapped.

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“I accept that, ordinarily, a sibling cleaning another sibling’s room would be harmless – and indeed a loving act – and most certainly not amount to harassment,” the judge said, clarifying that, in certain circumstances, what may be considered harmless for some, can be very distressful for others.

According to the brother, for the past eight years, his sister routinely barged into his room at night to clean it, completely disregarding his protests and need for privacy. In the beginning, she came in at around 9 pm, but then she started arriving at 11 pm and sometimes stayed until 4 in the morning cleaning the room. Even if she sometimes left early, she would return in the middle of the night and clean until morning.

The mutual sibling confirmed the sister’s bizarre cleaning schedule to the judge, adding that his brother would often hurry home to lock the door to his room only to prevent her from coming in. However, she rarely took no for an answer and usually found a way to enter the room to clean it. When asked why she insisted on cleaning her brother’s room, the woman simply said she “needed to do it”.

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“Because I need to work, my dear,” she told the judge. “I need work, my own schedule. I got to go according to my own schedule, my free time. I cannot say, you want me to come at 8am, means 8am. I’m not their maid, I’m not their worker.”

The woman tried to explain that she was cleaning her brother’s room against his will because he would not clean it himself, saying: “If the person does housework themselves, clean up their own room themselves, it’s fine. But they don’t even do so at all after 40 years of age. Not even one finger!”

However, the judge dismissed her explanation, stating that “both parties are adults and it was not necessary for the sister to impose her own hygiene standards on her brother.” He also acknowledged that the brother’s assault on his sister was “unacceptable”, but suggested that it may have been a reaction to the great distress caused by his sister’s conduct.

Asked if she would conform with the judge’s order to stop entering her brother’s room without his consent, the Singaporean woman answered “No, because … this unit belongs to my dad, not him. If he’s not comfortable, he can stay out. You ask him to stay out or get his own place. Because, literally, he (doesn’t) upkeep his room and he’ll breed all the (pests).”

She will need to be careful, though because breaching a court order is a criminal offense punishable by fine, jail, or both.