How do you all compensate your manager for using his or her vehicle to run to home depot or other errands around town?
Thank you,
Jason
Good question, I would be curious what others say.
Personally I don’t see it as a big priority. At a normal job where the employee commutes into work, the employer doesn’t provide compensation for traveling from their home to the office. Likewise, if the manager lives on site, an occasional home depot run is still far less travel than a normal job.
However, for some managers I do provide a monthly reimbursement for travel expenses (~$50+ per month). Also, this isn’t tax advice, but providing a reimbursement may not be subject to taxes. Beware though, formalizing travel compensation may increase your legal liability should an accident happen on a home depot trip, and you may want to discuss this with your insurance agent.
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We reimburse at the federal rate.
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@Brandon Do you have your manager submit a monthly mileage report then to calculate the reimbursement? I know there are many free apps out there like Everlance which can tally this pretty easily.
Pretty much yes. ,
All community owners that have managers use their own vehicles to run errands on park business should also carry “hired/non-owned auto liability.” This costs about $250/year for most park owners. This coverage defends and indemnifies the park in the event it is sued because of liability associated with a park manager, or other employee or contractor’s personal auto use.
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Kurt I have been told that hired/non-owned auto liability would protect the park if your manager is driving their vehicle on company business, causes and accident, and the park is sued for negligence. But It does not cover the manager or their vehicle.
I take this to mean that if my manager causes an accident or is involved in an accident and is badly injured and tries to sue the park because they were working for the park on company business at that time that the park is not covered for this. Is that correct?
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I’m sorry for the delayed reply.
“I take this to mean that if my manager causes an accident or is involved in an accident and is badly injured and tries to sue the park because they were working for the park on company business at that time that the park is not covered for this. Is that correct?”
Example: Ms. Smith is the Park Manager. While driving to the bank on park business in her owned car, she negligently runs into the back of another vehicle driven by Mr. Jones. Ms. Smith is hurt, her car has $10,000 in damage, and the car she hit has $10,000 in damage and Mr. Jones has $100,000 in medical bills. Ms. Smith has no collision coverage on her car, but does carry $25,000 in property damage liability and $25,000 in bodily injury liability insurance. The Park Owner has a general liability insurance policy with a “hired/non-owned auto liability” insurance extension. Who pays what?
Ms. Smith’s auto insurance would pay the full amount of damage to Mr. Jones’ car, $10,000, as it is within her auto liability limits. Her insurance would further pay $25,000 toward Mr. Jones’ medical bills. There would be no insurance to cover the damage to Ms. Smith’s car as she carried no collision insurance coverage.
The Park’s hired/non-owned auto liability coverage would pay the additional $75,000 owed to Mr. Jones for medical expenes, plus any additional claim he may have for pain and suffering (typically, this is 1x to 2x the amount of medical bills). The park’s hired/non-owned auto liability would further pay for any legal fees incurred by the park defending and managing this matter. No deductible would apply to the park owner.
Ms. Smith’s auto coverage would not pay for her medical expenses or claims. The park’s hired/non-owned auto liability insurance likely would not either. Ms. Smith’s medical expenses and lost wages would be covered by workers compensation insurance with no deductible presuming she’s an employee and the park owner carries workers compensation insurance.
We do not pay for personal use of vehicle. Our management contracts with the manager state that the manager is an independent contractor and must provide their own equipment (PC, phone, vehicle, etc.). For our roving maintenance crew, the company bought a van to drive between parks, and we pay all vehicle expenses, hotels, meals, etc. If we ever asked a manager to take a longer trip (like drive 1 hour to pickup a snowblower) then we would negotiate a payment, but that only happened once.
Those are all great rules. Good for you. Make sure you have a written contract that confirms all your agreements. Include language they are true independent contractors and will insure their operations and defend and indemnify you if their negliglence leads to you being sued.
That said, it’s not unsual at all for business owners (park owners) to be sued when their contractors are involved in an accident. One of the riskiest situations is when retailers/park owners hire contractors to haul manufactured homes. When business owners are sued for their contractor’s auto liability issues, the hired/non-owned auto liability extension will generally defend and indemnify them. The cost for this coverage extension is usually about $250/year.
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