Do many HOA's have handymen volunteers?

Technically speaking, you're probably not supposed to have volunteers.

An HOA is not a charitable or civic organization which can have people perform work without pay without violating labor laws. In other words, if an HOA has unpaid workers (volunteers) it is probably a violation of your state's labor laws.

We had one person and he was a con-man. We had a rule that one has to be licensed and insured before working on anything in the HOA above $100. The intentions of having a repair club is great and respectable. However, it is true about the liability and risk you put your volunteers and HOA.

What I did is a few times a year have a "Volunteer day". Where we bought the supplies and people volunteered to come out. It could be cleaning the pool area before it opened, planting flowers, or some minor maintenance.

It is always best to be licensed and insured when dealing with contractors. I'd suggest your volunteers be that or hire one of those handyman companies to do the work. Believe me, when that first fire happens due to a fautly light bulb, you are going to regret it.

Bruce,

That is a very narrow view that is not supported by reality. In the HOA world, very few board members are paid for their service. Are you suggesting that all of us who are now on a board or have served on a board in the past should file complaints against the associations we volunteered to serve?

Charitable organizations rely heavily on volunteers, as do political campaigns. I have found volunteers working in state government. I believe that even the federal government has volunteers. I would find it difficult to imagine that any government agency is going to enforce wage-hour laws against a non-profit HOA where members have volunteered their services.

But even I will concede that there are some problems with volunteers. For example, Workman's Comp premiums are (at least in my experience) based on payroll. No paycheck would equal no premium. I am not sure if that also means no coverage. A volunteer who suffers an accident is going to expect the association to pick up the costs of medical care and, depending on other factors, may also have a claim for loss of earning potential. A volunteer therefore presents some risk where the association may be liable to the volunteer.

Volunteers also pose the risk of making the association liable to third parties. We discussed some of these issues in another thread and my conclusion was that an association needs to keep a tight rein on volunteers. The reason for doing so is that the "employer" may be held liable if the person is (1) performing the kind of work he was "hired" to do, (2) doing it at the time and place where he normally does this work, and (3) doing the work for the benefit of the "employer." Court decisions hold that even unpaid workers are considered employees for liablity purposes.

The example I gave in the other discussion is a liability could be created when a volunteer committee decides to meet at bar across town where a member gets drunk, drives, and is involved in an accident. The liabilty could have been avoided by directing the committee to meet at a particular time and place. By leaving time and place open to the committee's discretion the association takes on way too much risk.

Handymen volunteers can pose similar libility problems that can be lessened by agreements of what work will be done, where it will be done, and what time it will be done.

Non-profit is not the key here. It is the type of work performed and the nature of the non-profit that matters.

It is often assumed that simply because an HOA is a non-profit organization that it is entitled to the same consideration that is given to non profit organizations whose primary mission is public service, religious, charitable, or humanitarian.

According to the Department of Labor, a volunteer is: an “individual who performs hours of service… for civic, charitable, or humanitarian reasons, without promise, expectation or receipt of compensation for services rendered.”

To determine whether an individual is a true volunteer engaged in “ordinary volunteerism,” the Department of Labor considers a number of factors. No single factor is determinative. The factors include:

Is the entity that will benefit/receive services from the volunteer a nonprofit organization?

Is the activity less than a full-time occupation?

Are the services offered freely and without pressure or coercion?

Are the services of the kind typically associated with volunteer work?

Have regular employees been displaced to accommodate the volunteer?

Does the worker receive (or expect) any benefit from the entity to which it is providing services?

A volunteer position at your nonprofit is likely to be regarded as “ordinary volunteerism” and safely exempt from the minimum wage requirements of the FLSA if you can answer “yes” to the first four questions and “no” to the final two questions.

The problem is question 4. The services of a "handyman" might be regarded as not typical of volunteer work, whereas the services as a director on a board or as an association officer would be exempt under the FLSA anyway.

I am only stating that the use of volunteers to do work that normally would be done by an employee or private contractor is risky, and could be a violation of labor laws. In practice, many people do perform "handyman" activities as a volunteer in an HOA, and, unless someone complains, likely nothing will ever happen. Since the person is volunteering to do the work that individual is not likely to complain anyway.

But, you might also have trouble with question 5. If your "handyman" volunteer is doing the same work that you would normally hire an employee or private contractor to do, then your answer to question 5 must be "yes."

Also, you cannot give anything to the volunteer as a way of saying thank you. Once you do, you have crossed the line.

It's just like income and taxes. Many people don't report taxable income they receive unless there is some sort of a record of that income, like a W-2 or a 1099. Just because many people do it, doesn't make it right.

My concern would be putting the association in a situation where there was some legal and/or failure to pay issues.

One glaring example is a volunteer handyman does some electrical work on the clubhouse. There is a fire. Insurance companies are looking for ways not to pay the claim. Wait one moment says the insurance company investigator. Unlicensed handyman rewired the...yada...yada.

Volunteer handyman falls of a ladder. Breaks their back. Cannot work. Broke. Watching TV and on comes a laywer advertising saying call us. Costs nothing for us to look into the case....yada...yada.

An association is a corporation...a business...treat it as such.

141 homes in Florida
5 board members
Pres. is a minister we meet in his church and others are intimidated in my opinion
we are supposed to follow RROC but they refused also refused to put in newsletter
unanimous votes are all that seem to matter
appreciate the input
seems like we have too many "wannabe attorneys" everyone says avoid a suit but are they based in fact or specular.

I have parachuted, white water rafted and volunteered building homes
all on written waivers....
so how does habitat for humanity do it?

Gotcha and thank you this is a great site

God knows there is not much humanity in an HOA Board!

You omitted white water rafting etc liability waiver

Never simple anymore.....
Makes you wonder how many things we hold dear could be built in today's BS world.
HOA's are mini governments and they are as screwed by potential legal " lawsuit fear"
as the US Congress.

I do not see anything in our Florida 720 Sunshine laws that prevent volunteers.
Only ignorance of the actual law and the presumption of legal problems....
and so the communities suffer.

As I understand it, Florida's "sunshine laws" have nothing to do with HOAs. I believe these laws are related to municipal governments.

The IRS has their own guidelines (and a narrow definition) when determining whether a person is an employee or a private contractor. Then, there are "statutory employees" (one of those little check boxes in box 13 of your W-2). The Department of Labor has their own definition, and it may not be the same. It makes you wonder if the two departments are part of the same government. It's like service animals: One agency's definition is broader than another agency's definition.

The point is, it doesn't matter how you choose to define an employee vs a volunteer, or whether you think a volunteer displaced an individual who should have been paid to do the work or not. What matters is how someone from the Department of Labor defines it, or someone from your state labor commission (or some agency) chooses to define it. If they say to you, "This person is not a volunteer. He should have been an employee. You own back wages plus payroll and state withholding taxes. Pay up."

What are you going to do? Argue? That may cost you more in the end.

Our association hires private contractors; even for such a small task as repairing a section of fence. Small associations are not likely to have employees because of all the "red tape" involved. However, I believe it is quite common for larger associations to have their own maintenance employees.

I'll admit that when you've gone for several years believing that certain things are OK, just because that's what you've always seen and "everybody" seems to do it, it's difficult to accept when someone says, "Wait a minute, that may not be OK because..."

Then there's the issue of liability and injury. I've addressed that elsewhere.

Perhaps I'm a bit more conservative and inclined to take less risk than others. But, as a board member, I have to keep the interests of the association (all the residents of our community) in mind. I cannot vote to take risks. I've often voted differently as a board member than the choice I would make if only I was affected.

This is a great thread. Lots of info and in the final analysis it comes down to the Insurance companies.
It is that simple. The laws covering this seem to be mostly similar across all 50 states. Some minor differences here and there.
But the Insurance companies really control the decision and drive whether or not this is feasible.

At my HOA, we have had sort of the same discussion where folks wanted to come together and do volunteer work in order to save costs.
Management company basically nixed it when he pulled out the Insurance policy and read it. Great idea but not going to fly.

However, we do have a few guys who volunteer to help folks with little projects at peoples homes, not HOA common areas.
That has turned into a great resource within the community. For example we have a guy who is a retired owner of a roofing company. His knowledge is invaluable for owners as the overall property is at that stage where it is time to start replacing roofs. His knowledge at looking at roofs and seeing the issues or problems is helping some families save a lot of money.

Some other guys have volunteered to help with minor fence repairs (versus a full replacement) or cabinet work to minor house or interior painting.

Really great to see neighbor helping neighbor.