Q: Our family owns and operates a small apartment building in Manhattan. My husband and I live in the ground-floor unit, and the apartment two flights up is vacant. Because my husband has a chronic disease, we are exploring options for home care. Could we provide that vacant apartment, which is market rate, to a home aide as an employment benefit? What would happen if the relationship doesn’t work out and we want to replace the aide with someone else? Would they still have rights to the apartment, or could we directly tie the housing to the job?

A: People certainly hire live-in home health aides to assist in care, and you can use an apartment you own for this purpose. But first you should make sure that the terms of the agreement are clearly spelled out.

Enter into an employment license agreement with whomever you hire, tying occupancy of the apartment to employment and making it part of the compensation package. In the agreement, specify that the license expires upon termination of the job by you or the employee.