a little background info here.. I inherited a 60 unit apartment complex..we had a bunch of problems that have since been fixed, I took over full management responsibilities, am loving my new role and moving forward.
When I took over we had a full time handyman in place who was being paid $1,000 a week, had no real schedule and they did not carry workers comp on him. I spoke to him and told him we needed to put him on our payroll and take out taxes, and cover him under our workers comp. He didnt like the idea and said he would handle his own taxes at the end of the year. At that point they had him receiving paid holidays and a weeks vacation.
however he pretty much operated like a sub contractor, we asked him to start work at 9 due to tenants sleeping and getting ready for work, he insisted he needed to work 7-3 because he had a second job at night and wanted to beat traffic. ok.. we had a couple problems with tenants complaining they would be woke up by him entering the apartment while they were still asleep and getting ready for work. I asked him to do things that didnt require him to go into any apartments before 9 am.. he did not comply.. then when we were getting ready to flip an apartment I sat down with him and asked him to make a list of materials with me he thought he would need so I would have all the materials on site when the apartment was vacant. we sat there, made a list and I said " ok great, how long do you think it will take to paint, put in new counters, and do any repairs needed?" he told me " dont rush me I got a bad back and I need you to bring all the paint, and tile up the stairs and leave it in the apartment I am not picking that stuff up"... I asked him what he did to his back he said he hurt it years ago and he had recently been working on a bunch of boats and tweeked his back last weekend at his other job.. ( which he freelanced cleaning and shrink wrapping boats on his own for private owners) .. I was stunned he asked me to bring up boxes of tile and 5 gallon buckets of paint.. I then told him if his back hurt and he cant do the work anymore maybe this isnt the job for him.. he told me he would be fine and worry about myself.. then I asked again how long he thought the apartment would take and told him I had someone wanting to sign a lease so it would need to be done in the next 2 weeks.. at that point he came over to me where I was sitting, grabbed the paper I had written all the materials on and crumbled it up and threw it at me and said " you dont give me deadlines and tell me when something needs to be done, I tell YOU when an apartment is ready and when you can lease it" and then he said " I'm tired of you micromanaging everything I do" ( to say he was unhappy with me taking my new role as property manager serious would be an understatement).. I think he was more comfortable with his free reign that he had under the old lax management.. at that point I guess he thought he would " show me" and didnt show up to work for the next 5 days ( at which point I quickly called a REAL subcontractor and had him do the job , which he completed in 5 days, well before the 2 weeks he thought was a tight schedule).. and then I met him and gave him his last paycheck and told him we no longer needed his services.. so now here is my problem.. I got a voice mail message from Workers Comp telling me he has filed a claim against me.. ( he sued his last job too, found that out afterwards.. so my question.. he was not covered under workers comp.. he didnt follow our rules, he made his own hours, didnt follow any schedule, did what he wanted when he wanted.. but we gave him paid holidays and vacation days.. so can he sue me/ the apartments personally...
