A woman went viral on TikTok after showing viewers a dangerous park her homeowners association (HOA) built with residents’ “extortion money.”
User @absolutelynot19, who lives in the Pacific Northwest, began her video by saying she had already had problems with her HOA. Without going into detail, she said the organization was “terrible” for fining her $90 for so-called cosmetic violations after her house burned down.
Then, according to @absolutelynot19, their local homeowners association raised the fees for building a jungle gym. There was just one big problem: It was fraught with safety hazards.
The TikToker suggested that children could easily injure themselves if they tried out the park’s amenities. As of Saturday evening, @absolutelynot19’s TikTok showing the playground had more than 1.5 million views.
What was wrong with the playground?
She began her tour of the common room by showing viewers a broken rope ladder. Not only was the ladder broken, it wasn’t attached to anything. So once a child got to the top, she said, they could only go down.
“If you’re skilled enough, you can get on the roof,” joked @absolutelynot19. “That’s nice.”
Next, she showed “jungle frames with a 10-foot drop.” To make matters worse, the frames directly intersected with a swing set. Much like the rope ladder, the jungle gyms weren’t connected to anything.
“If you can’t climb backwards,” she said, “you’ll fall down.”
From there, the park only got worse. @absolutelynot19 showed viewers other structures that were missing bolts and screws. There was also a climbing wall with a “broken board,” she said.
“There are no safe stairs or steps to get up here,” said @absolutelynot19. “You just have to climb walls, (a) rope ladder that goes nowhere but to the roof, and then a rickety ladder.”
@absolutnicht19 My HOA is my nemesis. Also, this looks way too beat up to be brand new, so I’m pretty sure they bought it on Facebook Marketplace and pocketed the rest of the money.
♬ Original sound – AbsolutNicht
At the end of her video, she accused her HOA of spending “extortion money” on a lost cause. “This is what we paid for,” @absolutelynot19 said of the increased fees she was charged to 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 there to serve the neighborhood and keep the peace within a community. But @absolutelynot19 is certainly not the first content creator to accuse the organization of making life unnecessarily difficult 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 @absolutelynot19’s have made them no longer want to live in a neighborhood with an HOA.
“This is why I refused to even look at homes in HOAs during the buying process,” one said.
“I’ve never been happier to live somewhere without people telling me what I can and can’t do with my own home,” added another user.
However, most commenters were similarly horrified by the park documented by @absolutelynot19.
“This is like an AI playground,” wrote one user.
“This is definitely not new,” said another.
“They must have gotten it from Temu,” added a third user.
The Daily Dot reached out to @absolutelynot19 via a TikTok comment.
Internet culture is messy—but we break it down for you in a daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter Here. Get the best (and worst) of the internet delivered straight to your inbox.
