Short answer: this is not a comparison between an hourly wage and a contract price. It is a decision about which obligations the association carries itself and which it transfers. Boards that compare the two on rate alone almost always understate the in-house option, because most of what makes an employee expensive does not appear on a wage line.
There are communities where in-house staff is clearly correct. Knowing which you are requires costing the thing honestly first.
Why the obvious comparison misleads
The arithmetic that gets presented to a board usually looks like this. A full-time maintenance employee at a given hourly wage works out at some annual figure. The vendor contract is a different annual figure. One is smaller, so it wins.
The problem is that the first number is a wage, and the second is a price. A price already contains payroll taxes, insurance, supervision, equipment, cover for absence, recruitment and profit. A wage contains none of those. Comparing them directly is comparing a part to a whole.
To make it a fair comparison the board has to build the employee number up to a true cost. That is where most of the surprises live.
What the association takes on as an employer
Workers' compensation becomes mandatory at four. Florida's Division of Workers' Compensation states that employers with four or more employees — including business owners who are corporate officers or LLC members — must carry workers' compensation coverage, under section 440.02(20) of the Florida Statutes. Construction work has a lower threshold of one employee.
For an association this matters in both directions. Hire a fourth person and coverage is no longer optional. Stay below four and it is not mandatory, which is not the same as the exposure disappearing — an uninsured injury on common property is still a claim against the association.
Reemployment tax. An employing association registers with the Department of Revenue and files quarterly. For 2026 the rate range runs from a minimum of 0.1 percent, or $7 per employee, to a maximum of 5.4 percent, or $378 per employee, applied to the first $7,000 of each employee's annual wages. New employers generally start part-way up that range rather than at the floor.
Payroll administration. Withholding, filings, pay runs and year-end reporting. Associations usually solve this with a payroll service, which is a real line item rather than a rounding error.
Coverage when your person is not there. This is the cost boards most consistently forget. One employee means holidays, sick days, training days and turnover are all gaps in service. A vendor absorbs that by definition; an association with one maintenance person absorbs it by having no maintenance that week.
Employment exposure. Becoming an employer brings hiring, discipline, termination and the claims that can follow. For a volunteer board with turnover every year or two, that is a category of risk with no institutional memory behind it.
Equipment, supplies and storage. Floor machines, pressure washers, ladders, consumables, and somewhere on the property to keep them. A vendor arrives with these.
What a contract gives you instead
The honest version of the vendor case is not that it is always cheaper. It is that the obligations sit somewhere else, and that Florida law gives a condominium board real leverage over what it is buying.
Section 718.3025 of the Florida Statutes provides that a written maintenance contract is enforceable only if it specifies the services and responsibilities, the reimbursable costs, how often each service is performed, and a minimum number of personnel to be employed by the contractor. It also provides that any services or obligations not stated on the face of the contract are unenforceable.
Read that as a buyer's tool rather than a compliance chore. A contract written to that standard tells you exactly what you are getting, how often, and with how many people — which is more specification than most associations ever write down for an in-house role.
Insurance follows the same logic. A vendor carries its own general liability and workers' compensation, and can name the association as additional insured. An employee's coverage is the association's to arrange and to pay for.
When in-house genuinely wins
We would be a poor source on this if we only argued one side, so here is the case against us.
Scale. Above a certain size, a property generates enough continuous work to keep someone busy every day, and at that point paying for travel and scheduling overhead on every visit stops making sense. Large high-rises and big master-planned communities often cross that line.
Immediate response. Somebody on site handles the irrigation break at seven on a Sunday faster than anyone dispatched. If your community's defining problem is response time rather than standards, an on-site person solves it directly.
Institutional knowledge. A long-serving maintenance employee knows which valve is temperamental and which door has always stuck. That knowledge is genuinely valuable and genuinely hard to contract for.
Resident relationship. In some communities, residents knowing the maintenance person by name is worth real money in satisfaction terms.
What most associations at that scale actually land on is a hybrid: an on-site person for daily response and small repairs, with contracted specialists for the work that needs equipment, crews or licensing. That is usually a better answer than either pure model.
How to compare it properly
Before the board votes, build the in-house number honestly. Start with the wage, then add payroll taxes and reemployment tax, workers' compensation premium if you will be at four or more employees, payroll administration, equipment and consumables, storage, and a realistic allowance for cover during absence and turnover.
Then get a vendor scope written to the same specification — spaces, frequency per space, crew size, exclusions — so you are comparing like with like rather than a wage against a price.
If the numbers land close, the deciding question is usually not cost at all. It is whether your board has the appetite to be an employer.
Where Ally Property Service fits
We are a contracted vendor, so we have an obvious interest in this question. What we will say is that we would rather lose a bid to an honest in-house comparison than win one against a number that left out workers' compensation and holiday cover.
We scope by space with frequency and crew size stated, because that is what the statute contemplates and because it is the only version a board can genuinely compare against the cost of employing someone. Communities that run a hybrid model use us for the specialist and scheduled work alongside their own staff.
Frequently asked questions
Does an HOA need workers' compensation insurance for maintenance staff?
In Florida, employers with four or more employees — including corporate officers and LLC members — must carry workers' compensation coverage under section 440.02(20), Florida Statutes. Construction work triggers the requirement at one employee. An association employing fewer than four non-construction staff is not required to carry it, though the underlying exposure remains.
Is it cheaper for an association to hire maintenance staff or use a vendor?
It depends on scale, and the comparison is frequently done wrong. A wage is not a true cost. Build the in-house figure up to include payroll and reemployment taxes, workers' compensation where applicable, payroll administration, equipment, storage and cover for absence before comparing it to a contract price.
What does a vendor contract have to include in Florida?
For condominiums, section 718.3025 requires a written maintenance contract to specify the services and responsibilities, reimbursable costs, how often each service is performed, a minimum number of personnel, and certain financial interest disclosures. Services not stated on the face of the contract are unenforceable.
Can an association use both in-house staff and contracted vendors?
Yes, and larger communities commonly do. A typical hybrid keeps an on-site person for daily response and minor repairs while contracting the work that needs crews, equipment or specialist licensing.
What is the most commonly missed cost in the in-house option?
Cover during absence. A single maintenance employee means holidays, sick leave, training and turnover are periods with no service at all, and boards rarely price that gap when comparing against a contract.
Want a scope you can compare honestly?
Call (727) 609-2559 or request a walkthrough. We will scope your property by space with frequency and crew size stated, so you can set it against the real cost of employing someone and decide on the numbers.
References
Statutory, regulatory and rate information in this article was checked on 9 October 2026:
Fla. Stat. § 440.02(20) — definition of employer for workers' compensation purposes, as applied by the Florida Department of Financial Services, Division of Workers' Compensation, which states that employers with four or more employees must carry coverage.
Fla. Admin. Code R. 69L-6.021 — list of construction industry trades, which carry a one-employee coverage threshold.
Fla. Stat. § 718.3025 — requirements for enforceable condominium maintenance and management agreements.
Florida Department of Revenue, Reemployment Tax Rate Information — 2026 rates, minimum 0.0010 (0.1%) or $7 per employee and maximum 0.0540 (5.4%) or $378 per employee, on annual wages up to $7,000 per employee.
This article is general information for Florida community associations and is not legal, tax or insurance advice. Cost figures depend on your circumstances, and thresholds, rates and statutes change. Confirm current requirements with your association attorney, your insurance agent and a qualified accountant before making an employment decision.
