A woman went viral on TikTok after showing viewers a dangerous park that her homeowners association (HOA) built using residents’ “extortion money.”
User @absolutelynot19, who lives in the Pacific Northwest, started her video by saying that she’s already had issues with her HOA. Without diving into details, she said the organization was “terrible” because it fined her $90 for so-called cosmetic violations after her house burned down.
After that, @absolutelynot19 said, her local HOA increased homeowners’ fees to build a jungle gym. There was just one major problem: It was littered with safety risks.
The TikToker suggested that kids could easily get hurt if they tried any of the park’s amenities. As of Saturday evening, @absolutelynot19’s TikTok showcasing the playground had amassed more than 1.5 million views.
What was wrong with the playground?
She started her tour of the communal space by showing viewers a broken rope ladder. Not only was the ladder broken, but it also didn’t connect to anything. So once a child climbed to the top, she said, there’d be nowhere to go but down.
“If you’re crafty enough, you can get up on the roof,” @absolutelynot19 quipped. “So that’s nice.”
Next, she showed off “monkey bars with a 10-foot drop.” To make matters worse, the bars directly intersected with a swing. Similar to the rope ladder, the monkey bars also didn’t connect to anything.
“Unless you can climb backwards,” she said, “you’re dropping down.”
The park only got worse from there. @absolutelynot19 showed viewers other structures, which had bolts and screws missing. There was also a climbing wall with a “busted plank,” she said.
“There are no safe stairs or steps to get up here,” @absolutelynot19 said. “It’s just climbing walls, [a] rope ladder to nowhere but the roof, and then a rickety ladder.”
@absolutelynot19 My HOA is my arch nemesis. Also this looks way to busted up to be brand new so im pretty sure they got it on facebook marketplace and pocketed the rest of the money.
♬ original sound – AbsolutelyNot
She ended her video by calling out her HOA for using “extortion money” on a lost cause. “This is what that paid for,” @absolutelynot19 said of the increased fees she was charged to help build the playground.
“I’m pretty sure they got it on Facebook marketplace,” she wrote in the accompanying video caption.
Viewers react to the playground
HOAs are in place to serve the neighborhood and maintain peace within a community. But @absolutelynot19 is certainly not the first content creator to accuse the organization of making life harder than it needs to be for residents. In June, another woman said her HOA towed her car from her own driveway. Another homeowner claimed he was fined $125 for leaving an Amazon package on his porch.
In the comments section, some homeowners claimed that horror stories like the one @absolutelynot19 shared made them not want to live in a neighborhood with an HOA.
“This is why I refused to even look at houses in HOAs while I was buying,” one said.
“Never been more glad to live somewhere that doesn’t have random groups of people telling me what I can and can’t do with my own home,” another user added.
Most commenters, though, were similarly appalled by the park @absolutelynot19 documented.
“This is like an AI playground,” one user wrote.
“No way that is new,” another said.
“They must have gotten it from Temu,” a third user added.
The Daily Dot has reached out to @absolutelynot19 via TikTok comment.
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