Snow Removal in Townhome Community

I taking a poll here and hopefully you can tell me how similar communities are handling this. We live in a fee simple, attached townhome community and the HOA only contracts snow removal of the common area parking lots and HOA owned common area streets. For years the Board has just communicated to the communuity that the residents (themselves) are responsible for removing the snow from their own sidewalk area in front of their home.. This is typically only about 22 ft of sidewalk and 10 ft of this is actually the driveway apron. These sections of sidewalks are actually common areas that are owned by the HOA. I can't find anything in the Community Documents that details the fact that the homeowner is responsible removing snow from their respective sidewalks in front of their homes. For years this has just been verbally communicated to the community and no one has questioned it.

Along comes an ICE STORM - Now that we've had one of the worst ice storms in about 10 years, some of the homeowners are complaining about the fact that the HOA didn't have the sidewalks cleared and sanded. Certainly this would have cost a small fortune had we contracted it out.

If you live in a similar community in a snow belt, I would like to know how you all handle snow removal or sanding in the common area sidewalks. Thanks.

Actually it looks like they are trying to avoid the liability by making the snow removal an owner expense. If someone were to slip and fall, and the association claimed that the owners were responsible, they might duck a lawsuit. Not that it would work. If the sidewalks are common areas, the association would ultimately be held responsible. No attorney is going to miss the deeper pocket.

I would suggest you simply write the board and ask them to provide you and the other owners with the legal basis for their decision to move association responsibilities on to individual owners. If they can't provide one, send another letter stating that you expect the association to maintain the common areas, and that includes the removal of snow from the sidewalks, et al.

My guess is that years ago, the board probably took a straw poll, asking if the owners would rather have their assessments increased, or would they rather assume the responsibility for snow removal from some areas themselves. The problem is that this would need to be a more formal vote of the owners, to amend the documents, rather than just a board decision. Also, I'm not sure any vote would remove potential liability from a slip on the common areas.

Joe

MikeS1

Our community's sidewalks and driveways are the responsibility of the HOA as provided in our CC&Rs, thus we perform snow removal. Our maintenance policy provides for removal of two inches or more. Anything less is the HO's responsibility.

Ice is another matter. We have not routinely provided for treatment of ice, which is far, far worse than snow, in my opinion.

Your board needs to examine its documents and discuss picking up this maintenance if the documents support such responsibility.

Hi Mike – We are in IL – legally we are condominiums, but our buildings look like attached town homes. Our HOA has a snow removal contractor (actualy our landscaper)remove snow/ice from the common areas (front walks, mail box pad, visitor parking areas), limited common elements (front stoop/stairs, driveways/aprons), and the sidewalks (which are publicly owned, but our Village requires that sidewalks be cleared by adjacent HO – in our case, the HOA). We salt as needed (and approved by PM) - salt is not in the contract for snow removal, so is charged/paid for on a case-by-case basis. We also salt when a HO requests it (due to potential liability for a slip/fall). The HO is responsible for their patio or deck. I have been given to understand that snow removal for the limited common elements I identified above are typically included in snow contracts in IL. A few years ago, our sister HOA (we have a Master HOA with 2 condo HOAs and single family homes) tried purchasing a “bucket” of ice melt for each of their HOs to use rather than have the snow contractor spread salt, but I think they went back to using the snow contractor as we do. The single family HOs take care of their own. Also, the Master HOA maintains a snow contract for the asphalt walking/bike path which runs along the outer sides of the property and which is adjacent to the common areas.

BTW, you mentioned that the driveway aprons are the responsibility of the HOs – assuming that having a driveway apron usually means there are also driveways – who clears the driveways?

Bonnie

Mike - you're welcome. Just curious - do the HOs own the land their town home sits on? Having the HO responsible for the maintenance/replacement of their driveway when it is a limited common element is something I have not run into before. -Bonnie

Hi Mike:

If your documents are totally silent on the issue of the snow removal from the sidewalks, then I would suggest that you look at your plat maps. If the sidewalks are listed as a tract/common area, then the HOA should be dealing with them. If the docs are silent and the sidewalks are clearly owned by the individual lot owners, then they would need to pay for the removal/sanding/salting/etc.

Be aware that different de-icing products are effective at different temperatures....you want to minimize the freeze/thaw cycle on the cement/concrete in order to preserve it as best as possible.

For what it's worth, several years ago I was living in an apartment (in Oregon) and we have about an inch of ice - nobody did anything but stay indoors until it began to melt on its own. But then again, we generally don't get enough snow/ice to try to deal with it anyway when it does come.