How Do You Hire Housekeepers / Gardeners / Contractors?

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FIREGuy88
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How Do You Hire Housekeepers / Gardeners / Contractors?

Post by FIREGuy88 »

How do you find and hire housekeepers, gardeners, contractors, and anyone else that works on your home?

What kind of insurance do you keep to protect yourself?
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quantAndHold
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Re: How Do You Hire Housekeepers / Gardeners / Contractors?

Post by quantAndHold »

Word of mouth from friends and neighbors. Our gardener does half the houses on the block. We hired him 20 years ago when my best friend was using him. He did a good job, and the neighbors all hired him one by one over the years. We don’t have a housekeeper now, but he last time we did, it was our gardener’s wife. Before her, it was someone another friend used.

We have normal homeowners insurance and an umbrella policy.
jebmke
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Re: How Do You Hire Housekeepers / Gardeners / Contractors?

Post by jebmke »

Recommendations from others in area and some in similar business.
Don't trust me, look it up. https://www.irs.gov/forms-instructions-and-publications
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cockersx3
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Re: How Do You Hire Housekeepers / Gardeners / Contractors?

Post by cockersx3 »

quantAndHold wrote: Mon Jun 21, 2021 4:57 pm Word of mouth from friends and neighbors. Our gardener does half the houses on the block. We hired him 20 years ago when my best friend was using him. He did a good job, and the neighbors all hired him one by one over the years. We don’t have a housekeeper now, but he last time we did, it was our gardener’s wife. Before her, it was someone another friend used.

We have normal homeowners insurance and an umbrella policy.
+1. Our lawn chemical guy does lawns for many of my neighbors, and they all like him and strongly recommended him so I went for it. (Cost was almost the same as it costs me to buy the chemicals and apply them myself). Also have had a remodeling contractor come though and do work in my house - he had done fantastic work for my neighbors so went with him for my house too. I probably could have gotten a better deal by shopping around, but I thought it wasn't worth the risk of hiring someone that may turn out to be a dud. No housekeepers or gardeners for the cockersx3 household, other than my kids LOL
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FIREGuy88
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Re: How Do You Hire Housekeepers / Gardeners / Contractors?

Post by FIREGuy88 »

quantAndHold wrote: Mon Jun 21, 2021 4:57 pm Word of mouth from friends and neighbors. Our gardener does half the houses on the block. We hired him 20 years ago when my best friend was using him. He did a good job, and the neighbors all hired him one by one over the years. We don’t have a housekeeper now, but he last time we did, it was our gardener’s wife. Before her, it was someone another friend used.

We have normal homeowners insurance and an umbrella policy.
Do you have them sign contracts? How do you pay them? Do you 1099 them?
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FIREGuy88
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Re: How Do You Hire Housekeepers / Gardeners / Contractors?

Post by FIREGuy88 »

jebmke wrote: Mon Jun 21, 2021 5:16 pm Recommendations from others in area and some in similar business.
Do you 1099 them?
miamivice
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Re: How Do You Hire Housekeepers / Gardeners / Contractors?

Post by miamivice »

No, you don't 1099 them. You send them a check and pay them like normal.
stan1
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Re: How Do You Hire Housekeepers / Gardeners / Contractors?

Post by stan1 »

FIREGuy88 wrote: Mon Jun 21, 2021 6:17 pm
jebmke wrote: Mon Jun 21, 2021 5:16 pm Recommendations from others in area and some in similar business.
Do you 1099 them?
Have you read the IRS pub on household employers?
https://www.irs.gov/publications/p926
Last edited by stan1 on Mon Jun 21, 2021 6:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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ResearchMed
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Re: How Do You Hire Housekeepers / Gardeners / Contractors?

Post by ResearchMed »

No 1099.

We pay by check, and at the end of the year, send a W-2.

In our case, we decided to "pay" (cover the cost of) all of the withholding.
So our housekeeper actually was paid more, but the extra was sort of invisible, because it was sent along with our portion of thw withholding.

We had "inherited" her from the previous owners, and she was a gem.
We soon found out that no withholding had ever been done. She had been working for a series of foreign diplomats in our area, and she was initially an immigrant who may not have realized what was going on, The diplomats had immunity, so apparently these were among the things they handled... differently...

We explained things to her, including how she had not been getting any "credit" for Social Security ( :shock: ). We didn't want to suddenly lower her take home, which is why we chose to add all of those extra costs to what we submitted.
She and her husband since became citizens.

She stopped working for us soon after the pandemic started (a huge loss for us, but we didn't want anyone in the house anyway). But at least she had already worked more than the required number of quarters to become eligible for all of the services.

RM
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quantAndHold
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Re: How Do You Hire Housekeepers / Gardeners / Contractors?

Post by quantAndHold »

FIREGuy88 wrote: Mon Jun 21, 2021 6:15 pm
quantAndHold wrote: Mon Jun 21, 2021 4:57 pm Word of mouth from friends and neighbors. Our gardener does half the houses on the block. We hired him 20 years ago when my best friend was using him. He did a good job, and the neighbors all hired him one by one over the years. We don’t have a housekeeper now, but he last time we did, it was our gardener’s wife. Before her, it was someone another friend used.

We have normal homeowners insurance and an umbrella policy.
Do you have them sign contracts? How do you pay them? Do you 1099 them?
For the gardener, I write a check once a month, which was our verbal agreement. We left a check on the kitchen counter for the cleaning lady each time she came. No, we’ve never withheld taxes or filed tax forms. None of them have ever worked enough for us in any year to need to do that.
powercherry5
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Re: How Do You Hire Housekeepers / Gardeners / Contractors?

Post by powercherry5 »

I honestly have never heard of anyone every filing tax forms (1099/w2) for things like landscaping/maid/pool guys/contractors/etc. I have heard people need to to w2 regular nannies and things like that though.
DoubleComma
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Re: How Do You Hire Housekeepers / Gardeners / Contractors?

Post by DoubleComma »

I could be wrong, but my understanding is if they are true independent contractors I don't need to make withholding, submit at W2 or 1099. My Housekeeper, Yard Service and Pool Service are independent contractors. I don't tell them when to come, I don't tell them what to do other than the basic agreed service (take care of yard, take care of pool, take care of house, etc).

Nannies or full time household staff are not independent contractors. They typical have set times to come and go, especially nannies. You are the employer and very likely provide more specific instructions on what is to be done or prioritized. These are employees and consequently need to have withholding and W2 or 1099 forms completed.

As far as how to find them, we have depended on word of mouth referrals. Our housekeeper is the same as my Parents and several other close families in the area. Our pool service was a recommendation from the pool builder and is used extensively in our neighborhood. The yard service was much more trial and error. I went through 3-4 recommendations before I found one I liked who took care of the yard they way we like. The critical element for the yard service was do what needs to be done and simply add it to the bill, I don't want to have to provide instruction to trim a shrub, fix a sprinkler, replace a dead plant, rotate the seasonal color....its hard to find someone willing to do more that Mow-Blow-Go, which I understand is what most people want.
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Clever_Username
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Re: How Do You Hire Housekeepers / Gardeners / Contractors?

Post by Clever_Username »

Word of mouth in my case. A colleague recommended a person when I wanted to hire someone to clean my house, so I hired her. I liked the work so I asked her to work another time. I didn't have any special insurance for this, I didn't even think I would want to.
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MDfan
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Re: How Do You Hire Housekeepers / Gardeners / Contractors?

Post by MDfan »

quantAndHold wrote: Mon Jun 21, 2021 6:40 pm
FIREGuy88 wrote: Mon Jun 21, 2021 6:15 pm
quantAndHold wrote: Mon Jun 21, 2021 4:57 pm Word of mouth from friends and neighbors. Our gardener does half the houses on the block. We hired him 20 years ago when my best friend was using him. He did a good job, and the neighbors all hired him one by one over the years. We don’t have a housekeeper now, but he last time we did, it was our gardener’s wife. Before her, it was someone another friend used.

We have normal homeowners insurance and an umbrella policy.
Do you have them sign contracts? How do you pay them? Do you 1099 them?
For the gardener, I write a check once a month, which was our verbal agreement. We left a check on the kitchen counter for the cleaning lady each time she came. No, we’ve never withheld taxes or filed tax forms. None of them have ever worked enough for us in any year to need to do that.
Same thing we do. Write a check every month for our house cleaner. Never considered doing anything else (tax-related). We have a lawn guy that we pay cash by the project.
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ResearchMed
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Re: How Do You Hire Housekeepers / Gardeners / Contractors?

Post by ResearchMed »

DoubleComma wrote: Mon Jun 21, 2021 9:20 pm I could be wrong, but my understanding is if they are true independent contractors I don't need to make withholding, submit at W2 or 1099. My Housekeeper, Yard Service and Pool Service are independent contractors. I don't tell them when to come, I don't tell them what to do other than the basic agreed service (take care of yard, take care of pool, take care of house, etc).

Nannies or full time household staff are not independent contractors. They typical have set times to come and go, especially nannies. You are the employer and very likely provide more specific instructions on what is to be done or prioritized. These are employees and consequently need to have withholding and W2 or 1099 forms completed.

As far as how to find them, we have depended on word of mouth referrals. Our housekeeper is the same as my Parents and several other close families in the area. Our pool service was a recommendation from the pool builder and is used extensively in our neighborhood. The yard service was much more trial and error. I went through 3-4 recommendations before I found one I liked who took care of the yard they way we like. The critical element for the yard service was do what needs to be done and simply add it to the bill, I don't want to have to provide instruction to trim a shrub, fix a sprinkler, replace a dead plant, rotate the seasonal color....its hard to find someone willing to do more that Mow-Blow-Go, which I understand is what most people want.
My understanding is that "Independent Contractors" are provided a 1099, but nothing is withheld. And they work more independently.

It's the "employee" category that gets the W-2 and has withholding.

But our housekeeper, at least, had arrangements with us to be at our house on certain days/hours (unless a change was needed), and with certain job expectations. Further, we provided all of the equipment. (She was not like a service that shows up with their own vacuum and cleaning supplies, etc.)

If the quarterly (annual?) pay was below a certain relatively low threshhold, then tax forms were not required.

Without one of those forms, there is the, uh, possibility of overlooking the taxes...

RM
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vinhodoporto
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Re: How Do You Hire Housekeepers / Gardeners / Contractors?

Post by vinhodoporto »

We have always used companies for these types of services - based on word of mouth recommendations and observations of their work in our neighborhood. We always check to ensure they’re licensed and insured before hiring them.

It’s more expensive but avoids the administrative hassle of tracking payments, possibly doing withholding etc, and also minimizes the personal tax and legal risks.
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ResearchMed
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Re: How Do You Hire Housekeepers / Gardeners / Contractors?

Post by ResearchMed »

Although we inherited our housekeeper from the previous owners of our house, we didn't have the same experience with gardener or snowplowing.

Eventually, DH occasionally drove through the neighborhood during the summer, to see which landscapers were doing work in the area, and, importantly, whether the yards/lawns and various plantings looked nice and seemed to be trimmed and cared for (as much as our inexperienced eyes could tell).

One of the seemingly nicer services was not taking new clients.
But the next one we decided to try was, and so we had a meeting and hired him.
It's worked out very well for >15 years although he's slowing down a bit (age and health).

Fortunately, he also did snowplowing during the winters, which is not unusual here.

We pay his company, not him personally, so the tax situation is all on his end.
(Otherwise, his situation would definitely be "Independent Contractor". He decides what needs to be done for the most part (we'll select new plans/bushes/trees), how often he needs to be here, how to do the work, and he uses his own equipment.
He also has some employees, so it's quite different from our housekeeper situation.

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rich126
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Re: How Do You Hire Housekeepers / Gardeners / Contractors?

Post by rich126 »

I would always make sure someone is at home if you are dealing with people in the house and make sure to put always/lock any sensitive information (account numbers, checks, etc.).

I had a friend who was retired and had a housekeeper come once a week. He thought she was very nice and recommended her to friends. Then one day he noticed his bank account balances seemed low. Found out she got his account numbers and were using them to pay her bills. He was lucky in that some of the bill paying companies did not follow proper authentication so they were on the hook to repay him. Also it took him some effort to get her prosecuted because the dollar amount was only a few thousand. He felt terrible about recommending her to his friends.

I will admit to letting in contractors to do work on the house although I try to sanitize it and usually only for people who have done work for me previously.

If you can't get good references, then often it is a trial/error thing. I've gone through a number of landscape people, one flood part of my house although he did have insurance. At first he tried to deny it but I think his wife forced him to own up to it. Never had any interest in a housekeeper since I don't want someone going through my house and cleaning up.
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Re: How Do You Hire Housekeepers / Gardeners / Contractors?

Post by Broken Man 1999 »

Mostly through word of mouth via neighbors, friends.

Since 1980 we have had two appliance repairmen. The first was sent after a call to GE to come fix an appliance. He left GE shorty afterwards, and started out on his own, so we kept him until he retired. He recommended our current repairman of probably 20 years. As it turns out, his son is in the business on his own, so we might use the son when his father retires.

Many of light duty maintenance on our home has been done by the company who built our home. The owner retired and was bought out, and thus far we are OK with the new owner. The crew is smaller, so for large projects I wouldn't use them.
A bathroom remodel, an entry door replacement, they handled just fine.

A friend's recommendation of a GC for our kitchen remodel and downstairs flooring replacement a couple of years ago gave us a great job, and some really good subs. So we use the subs on various projects. The drywall and painting crew are here today painting upstairs.

We have used a HVAC company for many years that was sold to one of the workers a few years ago. We were very familiar with the new owner as he has been to our home over the years as a worker bee. The new owner still makes service calls, a part-time worker bee now.

I don't like to wonder about the character of the people I allow into our home, and the quality of work they might perform. I'd rather find good ones, and keep them. And, I don't mind paying a premium at all.

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Re: How Do You Hire Housekeepers / Gardeners / Contractors?

Post by jharkin »

FIREGuy88 wrote: Mon Jun 21, 2021 6:17 pm
Do you 1099 them?
Are you looking to hire full time 40 hr a week paid household staff? If so that s a whole other discussion and a 1099 or W2 would be indicated.

Most people that use services you describe hire them out as that: a service. Contractor sends a bill and you pay it. You don't need to have any special insurance besides the usual homeowners liability coverage - and in fact you should make sure that the services you hire have their own insurance (business liability, workmans comp, etc) and appropriate licenses - to protect you.
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FIREGuy88
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Re: How Do You Hire Housekeepers / Gardeners / Contractors?

Post by FIREGuy88 »

jharkin wrote: Tue Jun 22, 2021 1:12 pm
FIREGuy88 wrote: Mon Jun 21, 2021 6:17 pm
Do you 1099 them?
Are you looking to hire full time 40 hr a week paid household staff? If so that s a whole other discussion and a 1099 or W2 would be indicated.

Most people that use services you describe hire them out as that: a service. Contractor sends a bill and you pay it. You don't need to have any special insurance besides the usual homeowners liability coverage - and in fact you should make sure that the services you hire have their own insurance (business liability, workmans comp, etc) and appropriate licenses - to protect you.
Are you saying that if you contracted out housekeeping work, and paid the person $600 or more per year, you wouldn't 1099 them?
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Re: How Do You Hire Housekeepers / Gardeners / Contractors?

Post by drizzleray »

FIREGuy88 wrote: Tue Jun 22, 2021 2:45 pm
jharkin wrote: Tue Jun 22, 2021 1:12 pm
FIREGuy88 wrote: Mon Jun 21, 2021 6:17 pm
Do you 1099 them?
Are you looking to hire full time 40 hr a week paid household staff? If so that s a whole other discussion and a 1099 or W2 would be indicated.

Most people that use services you describe hire them out as that: a service. Contractor sends a bill and you pay it. You don't need to have any special insurance besides the usual homeowners liability coverage - and in fact you should make sure that the services you hire have their own insurance (business liability, workmans comp, etc) and appropriate licenses - to protect you.
Are you saying that if you contracted out housekeeping work, and paid the person $600 or more per year, you wouldn't 1099 them?
There is no 1099 filing requirement for personal expenses. See https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-bu ... ion-return
pshonore
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Re: How Do You Hire Housekeepers / Gardeners / Contractors?

Post by pshonore »

FIREGuy88 wrote: Tue Jun 22, 2021 2:45 pm
jharkin wrote: Tue Jun 22, 2021 1:12 pm
FIREGuy88 wrote: Mon Jun 21, 2021 6:17 pm
Do you 1099 them?
Are you looking to hire full time 40 hr a week paid household staff? If so that s a whole other discussion and a 1099 or W2 would be indicated.

Most people that use services you describe hire them out as that: a service. Contractor sends a bill and you pay it. You don't need to have any special insurance besides the usual homeowners liability coverage - and in fact you should make sure that the services you hire have their own insurance (business liability, workmans comp, etc) and appropriate licenses - to protect you.
Are you saying that if you contracted out housekeeping work, and paid the person $600 or more per year, you wouldn't 1099 them?
Not unless I was going to deduct that expense on my taxes as some sort of business expense.
crit
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Re: How Do You Hire Housekeepers / Gardeners / Contractors?

Post by crit »

I've found two housekeepers through care com.
Our pre-covid worker declined a vaccine, so we had to find another.
We ask if they are insured, but we prefer people who work for themselves rather than using a company that might send different people every time, and the self-employed typically aren't self-insured.
We are insured, homeowners and umbrella.
We do not 1099, but come just under the $600!yr.
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