Building's management company - can I employ myself as a contractor?

tante

InterestedParty2018 wrote: »

Great idea, but would suggest you consider the following:

- How will you be charging for your work/time? Sole Trader, or a cleaning company?
- will you be insured? If you trip or injure yourself, would you seek compensation?
- what if another resident (or their visitor) trips over you vacuum cord. Will you have PI insurance in place?
- will the appliances you use be PAT tested?
-Will cleaning materials (in particular detergents or similar products) be kept away from the residents either whilst in use or in storage?

Thanks for this useful list of things to consider - I was thinking I'd probably set up a limited company to invoice them for some separation between me and the cleaning entity. The tricky one definitely seems to be the public liability insurance as I've no idea how much that would cost - I'll try to get some quotes. But I'd be passing that cost on to the management company for sure.


I'm not sure if there's any real accreditation that cleaning companies need to have (would be surprised as half of them are awful), if anyone is aware of one please let me know!



Luckily the opinions of most other people in the building don't come into it really, as they're mostly live-out investor landlords who don't seem to care about the building or anyone's behaviour in it and are not consulted about anything apart from major works.



I have sent the management agents a lot of photos showing stuff like cheese spread all over the halls, lift and stairs that was there for weeks (yes, cheese...) so it would be pretty hard for anyone to say I was doing worse than that!

quantumlobster

Cheese?

Like, actual cheesy cheese? As in Dairylea or Wensleydale (Grommit!) or Danish Blue?

Blimey.

InterestedParty2018

Tante,
Have you made a complaint to the m/agent about the quality of cleaning?
Are the cleaners visiting as frequently as they are contracted to?
Is their remit clear? (Although I cant imagine that cleaning smeared cheese would be excluded!)
Are the m/agents performance monitoring the contractors?
Maybe a formal notice is required to get an improved service.

If no improvement, insist on termination of the contract and the job is put to tender. Irrelevant of the size of the common parts there is bound to be a local firm who would be able to provide the service.

You said you would consider opening a limited company and PI insurance cost would be passed on. What about accounting costs for the LTD company? what about annual return costs?

There I go, Mr Pessimist this time!