Being able to sleep soundly every night comes at a price. It is the monthly fee we pay to have security guards patrol our residential area from sundown to sun-up.

Of course some of us do not see why we should pay. Shouldn’t safety within our own residential area be a given?

What are the law enforcers doing?

However, we do not live in a perfect world. Danger lurks around every corner, ready to pounce on you, the moment you step out the door.

Only the watchful eye of your neighbourhood security guard will keep you safe or, at the very least, give you a sense of well-being.

However, not everyone agrees that ensuring their own security is their personal responsibility.

As a result, the need to hire security personnel has led to many disputes. Dealing with such wrangling over the cost to engage them has become a full-time preoccupation for officials of residents associations.

It is a thankless job.

To punish those who refuse to pay, one residents association has decided that the security personnel would not raise the boom gate for the defaulters to enter or leave their residential area.

Of course it raised a hue and cry but the court has decided that the residents association’s action is warranted.

On Monday, the Court of Appeal ruled that a registered residents association within the Petaling Jaya City Council has the right to impose conditions on residents who do not contribute towards security and maintenance.

The three-member bench said it was reasonable to require non-paying members of the community to open and shut the boom gate themselves.

Some people like to live in isolation from their own community. They are the same people who do not see the need to join the residents association, which entails paying a monthly membership fee.

Of course everyone has a right to the lifestyle he chooses, but the reality is that we cannot live apart from those around us.

We are, after all social animals, and everything that happens around us has an impact on us as it does on everyone elsewhere.

The security detail for residential areas has long been the norm in Malaysia and until or unless something else can be done to make us feel safe again, we have to live with it.

Just be thankful that we do not end up in a walled-up and fortified compound just to stay safe.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.