Should I keep my building Super or rent out unit for full market?

[Mark Gee]

My Super and I haven't been getting along lately.  He's helps me manage a 6 family multi and he occupies one of the units with his 2 kids.  I'm trying to decide whether we should go our separate ways or if I just need to do a better job managing him.

First off, he's not a bad guy and I trust him.  He pays $1000/mo in rent, which is about $500 undermarket.  Plus I pay him $150 for basic maintenance (grass cutting 5 mo of the yr, snow shovelling walkways 3-7x a yr, light hallway cleaning, occasionally helps w/ lockouts, takes the garbages out on the correct days, etc.).

In addition, as the building Super he keeps his tools in the basement and I give him some additional storage down there. He also gets sole use of the driveway which is a perk b/c he has an F150 that would be difficult to park on the street.

I also give him extra money for additional side jobs. In the past few months he's been paid about $25-30 an hour to do some roofing and gutter work, laid down new linoleum in one of the bathrooms, porch repair, etc... 

The issue is he feels I keep asking him to do more and more (as part of regular maintenance) and I "don't treat him as an equal".  For instance, I asked him to repair a broken window and install a deadbolt just yesterday. He routinely hauls some construction garbage off the premises when it builds up (from remodeling the units). In my mind, I try to keep him busy and keep making incremental improvements at the house.

I feel that he complains and whines about things instead of simply communicating when his workload requires additional pay. I feel he's being ungrateful at times for the $650+ per/mo in benefits for typically 7-8 hours of work per month.

We've had the same issue several times in the last couple months. Do I need to manage better or is it time to go our separate ways? I certainly like having the extra eyes on the place (I live 25 mins away), but perhaps a change is in order. Or maybe I'm just a bad manager of him?

Apologies for being long-winded with this....

[Wes Brand]

People tend to take the money they're not charged for granted. You might want to raise his rent to market and give him a credit on it for 500/mo for the building-super duties. I'm unsure of the legalities of doing this, but then he sees the benefit he's getting. I'm also unsure doing so would mean you need to be careful of having him presumed to be an employee. 

You may also want to just offer him market rent and no other duties. (But remain professional when you do this -- not when he's complaining or you're complaining about something)