Q: Our association has a handyman that we regularly use as an independent contractor. It is only him and sometimes a helper. He does not have workers’ compensation insurance as he is exempt from being legally required to carry it. Our management company is telling us we should not use this person if he is not insured. Our association has its own workers’ compensation insurance and general liability so I am not sure I understand the problem. What is your opinion on this topic?
— G.W.
Bonita Springs
A: Workers’ compensation is a form of insurance providing wage replacement and medical benefits to employees injured in the course of employment in exchange for mandatory relinquishment of the employee’s right to sue his or her employer for the tort of negligence. So workers’ compensation protects the employer not the association directly.
If an accident occurs, you have general liability insurance to cover the association and if the person somehow could prove he was an employee of the association that is what the association’s workers’ compensation is for. The downside of the employer not having workers’ compensation is that if the employee gets hurt and the employer is not well financed the injured person will only have one entity to sue, the association.
If the employer has workers’ compensation then some of the liability can be laid off on the employer and presumably less on the association. But another real problem is that if the handyman causes damage to the association property or injures someone, he has no general liability insurance to pay for it.
For those reasons we do not recommend the association hire people without workers’ compensation, even if not legally required, and certainly not without general liability coverage.