Tag: Hiring & Staffing

When you hire independent contractors to perform work at your community, you risk being sued if any of the contractors' workers are injured on the job. Any good community association manager will want to ensure that work is being done correctly, on time, and without risks to the community or its members. So, it's good to keep a keen eye on contractors' employees as they work on projects for which you've hired them.

If your community is in a region of the country that gets snow, hiring a snow removal contractor may be inevitable. Typically, snow removal contractors provide associations with a form contract to sign. But a form contract may not always work to your benefit—for example, it may not have a payment plan that's beneficial to you or specifically spell out such things as when the company should start plowing after a snowfall.

If you draft your own snow removal contract, ask your attorney about including the following seven key protections.

The Fair Housing Act's ban on retaliation applies not only to prospective members who claim to be victims of housing discrimination, but also to anyone who helps or encourages alleged discrimination victims to pursue their rights under fair housing law. Those provisions protect employees from adverse employment actions—such as being fired, demoted, or harassed—for opposing discriminatory practices or advising aggrieved residents to contact fair housing agencies.

Federal laws require employers including community associations and management companies to post signs explaining legal information to their employees. Failure to post the signs can cost as much as $10,000 per violation. Fortunately, compliance is easy. The signs are available free of charge from the government agencies that oversee the sign-posting laws.

When you hire a bad apple to work in your community, you run some serious risks. The individual may perpetrate some sort of crime due to easy access to your members. If news of the crime gets out, your community's reputation may plummet and you may fall into a costly legal trap called “negligent hiring.” The association or your management office may be liable because you exposed members or visitors to dangerous employees through poor hiring practices.

All management companies and associations have to deal with a problem employee at some point, no matter how carefully they hire employees or how diligently they try to create a good work environment. For many managers or directors, deciding whether and how to discipline or fire an employee is one of the most stressful parts of the job.