Snow Removal Contracts

Hello all,

I live in an 18 unit townhouse community (3 rows of 6 houses on two roads) with a self-managed HOA. I'm currently serving as a board member. Living in central Virginia we don't get a lot of snow throughout the year but when we do it seems to be enough to shut the city/county down (we received 6-11 inches last night, first real snow of the season). Our community has two private roads/parking lots that connect to a county street.

I'm curious how other HOA's handle snow removal. Do you have contracts for just parking lot/street removal or sidewalks as well? Do you call your snow removal company when snow is coming or do they automatically come out when the snow is at or above X number of inches.

I had a homeowner try to start an argument last night, saying the HOA is responsible for removing snow from sidewalks, and going so far as to say its against the law to not have the sidewalks cleared within 48 hours. I do see this as a liability to the HOA since the sidewalks are part of the common area, but there is no specific mention of snow removal in any of our documents, and these sidewalks are on private property and are not connected to any county streets. In the 3 years I've lived here there has never been any company that removed snow from my community...most homeowners shovel their own sidewalks and just wait for the rest to melt.

This isn't the first time I have been asked about snow removal so I feel this is something the Board should look into, but I want to get your feedback first. This is something that would have to be built into our operating budget, which would increase monthly assessments, so I would like to hear what has worked in the past as well as what has not worked.

Thanks in advance for any information you guys can offer.

> its against the law to not have the sidewalks cleared within 48 hours.

In some cities there is a 24 hour regulation. It is the responsibility of the homeowner (for single family houses).

In an HOA- it depends on your documents. If the documents say the association is responsible for snow removal, then it is. If the documents are silent or ambiguous, this would be a decision made by the board.

If your city requires snow removal, either the HOA has to do it or each homeowner gets out his shovel.

I believe the snow must be removed within a specific time is for businesses using public sidewalks, etc. not for private homes. Not sure where an HOA falls.

Thanks everybody for the feedback. I checked with the County and there are no regulations regarding snow removal on sidewalks. Driving to work this morning there are some sidewalks that haven't been touched, and these are on public streets.

Our documents say nothing regarding snow removal, so I intend to bring this up in our next meeting. If the association feels this is something we need to budget then we'll do that, but knowing the apathy of the community and most homeowners frowning on increasing assessments I think once a price tag is associated with this most homeowners will opt to take care of their own sidewalks.

I believe it will but I'll have to check to be certain. Definitely something for us to check into regardless of the way this all goes.