Found money

I would ask for proof of this "winfall". You can't take the word of mouth on this. There has to be record of it on the collections report or the financial statements. You may not be able to see the collections reports since you are no longer a board member.
I don't see how this windfall came to be. $10K from a vice-president's wife? What was that money returned for? You can't "donate" money to the HOA even though it is a non-profit. It's NOT a charitable non-profit. I just don't see how this money was returned unless there was other circumstances we aren't aware of.
If this money does exist, it may best be put into the reserve funds. It's imporant to establish a good reserve fund and NOT touch that money until a large project must be done.
It takes money to get money in a HOA. If you have a large amount of non-payers, it's going to cost to start enforcing the lien/foreclosure process. The additional funds the HOA raised may be best to also apply it to begin enforcing people to pay up. It's not fair to the rest of the owner's to pay more to support the other's NOT living up to their end.

Melissa...it was the old MC that found the money and returned it to the HOA NOT the VP's wife.....She and I worked very closly when I was on the Board to try and have the Association run properly. The other Board members would NOT have an audit done or a reserve review. They would not enforce the CC&R's or go after the delinquents agressively. This is the reason I am no longer on the Board, I pushed to hard to have things done correctly.....the VP's wife told me about the money coming in and I also heard it from one other HO. I will be chacking into this further but the question I ask was, "isn't it the right of all HO's to know of this money, shouldn't they be told and shouldn't we have a say in how it will be spent/handled?"...This Board took over Jan/05 and we still have the same 5 HO's that are two(2) years behind in their association fees ($372. every six months) and we have added three(3) new delinquents @ the new increased fees of $409.,a 10% allowed increase w/o a vote. A few liens have been placed but no further action will be done....

I agree with you, it is not fair for the paying HO's to carry this burden and have our fees increased each year to cover their loses. And like most HOA's we have no particiption from the HO's. We are over 50% rentals and only two/three HO's attend the meetings plus the Board members. This I believe is because the HO's are never told anything, no newsletter, no communication. At the last meeting we had two rental HO's show up but only because I called them and told them of the meeting. And this Board is here to stay, as long as the HO's stay in the dark, they will remain in charge which is exactly what they want.