handyman/contractors

MC4,

Florida law says that all contractors must be licensed and have insurance. M.C is correct. Someetimes these small maintenance jobs just are hard to deal with because of the expense in hiring a licensed person to do piddley work. I still think that members of the community should or could change a light bulb in a hallway as long as they are not at risk for a fall of something dangerous.

Your management company is correct on the W9 and insurance information, but since they work for your HOA, it seems to me it's not their place to allow or disallow anything without the board's ok. They're probably more concerned about losing money, as you suspect.

Our community has a handyman, who had no trouble signing a waiver and our management company takes care of the W9 stuff - it's worked quite well, as he doesn't live far from the community and when something needs to be done, either our board president or property manager calls him, and he does good work (usually things like clearing weeds - anything that requires a license, we hire a licensed professional)

We used to have a resident "Handyman". Long story but I wouldn't do that over again. It's ALWAYS best if it can't be done by volunteer labor, to hire a licensed/insured contractor. There are businesses out there that specialize in handyman work. I use Mr. Handyman who charges about $200 for 2 hours of work and about $100 for any additonal hours if needed. (It depends on location/franchise owner). They do anything you ask them to do in those few hours. Other handyman services sometimes charge by the job. So you have a choice between how you want them to work by job or by list. Most small jobs don't take but a few minutes. The more professional companies wear uniforms so people will feel more comfortable with them.

Yes, it's not a good idea to not have someone licensed/insured to do work. However, there are times that you can enlist voluteer labor from the members. I used to have "Volunteer day" once or twice a year. It was just a basic cleanup and maybe paint an area type thing. It promoted people taking care of the area and working together. However, no jobs were done if it required a professional. Liability insurance can sometimes make you over worry and not do anything. I say what else is it there for if you can't get anything done?

Hold harmless agreements are probably unenforceable. Let the small jobs accumulate and then hire a licensed and insured handyman to do the work A w-9 ONLY NEEDS TO BE ISSUED TO UNINCORPORAYED CONTRACTORS who are paid in excess of $600.00 per year.

Actually, a W-9 is used to request the taxpayer identification number (typically SSNs for individuals). A 1099-misc is used to report earnings/payments to those contractors.

It's the 1099s that typically don't have to be issued unless they are paid over $600.

Here are links about the topic:

IRS - Instructions for the Requester of Form W-9

Instructions for 1099-misc

IRS - Employee or Independent Contractor

In AZ we have a statute that allows handymen to perform something like $900 worth of work without a license. You might check Florida statutes to see if there is a similar exemption.

My experience has been that if I hire a contractor I will get an over-priced poorly-executed job. I avoid them whenever possible.

You might look into hiring an on-call employee. As an employee, he needs no license. You won't be able to sue him if he does lousy job but he will not be able to file a mechanic's lien on your property. You will have to withhold taxes, pay SSA, unemployment, and worker's comp. In reality, this is not very expensive, especially when you consider that you can pay maybe $15 an hour to your employee instead of $100+ per hour for a contractor. By hiring a person as an employee, he does not need to have a contractor's license. At the end of the year he gets a W-2 instead of a 1099.

I would advise against hiring someone who lives in your HOA because of possible repercussions if you have to fire the employee.