Snow Removal Contracts

Started by HeathA • 5 replies • 3149 views

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HeathA
Posts: 9

Posted:

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.

TimB4 (Tennessee)
Posts: 21,062

Posted:

Heath,

I'm in a 130 lot townhome HOA (not a condominium). We have about 1/2 mile of roads/parking area. We are located in Fairfax County.

We have a contract for snow removal from the roads only. Homeowners are responsible for the sidewalks that abut their property and their own parking spaces. We ask homeowners to pitch in on removing snow from sidewalks that abut common areas. The reason we do this is that it's simply too expensive to have the sidewalks cleared. However, with every contract we do get an option bid for sidewalks and bring that to the membership explaining the increase in assessments that would be needed and then take a voice vote.

Snow removal laws are governed by County or City/municipality. Fairfax County does not require homeowners to clear snow. However, it is encouraged. You will need to check your own County for any legal requirements. Just do an internet search on snow removal laws in xxx county

The reason to clear snow from sidewalks is obviously safety. If someone is injured on a snow/ice covered sidewalk, whomever was responsible to clear the snow would likely be responsible for the injury and any damages as a result of the injury.

More than likely if someone was injured, both the homeowner and the Association would be sued. I suspect that the Association would be held more responsible since we repair the sidewalks. Our hope is that no injury ever happens. However, if it does, we hope that by taking the issue to the membership each contact renewal will help mitigate some of the responsibility.

You may want to have an official policy that members are responsible to remove snow from the sidewalks that abut their property. Of course, if you have such a policy, you will likely need to hire someone to remove snow from sidewalks that abut common area.

Note, at one time we did have a contract for sidewalks. In that contact, only the sidewalks were done and not the feeder (which is the walk from the front of the house to the sidewalk).

Hope this helps,

Tim

JerryD5 (Colorado)
Posts: 218

Posted:

Here is what we do for snow removal contracts. We have 63 single family homes with interior sidewalks that get shoveled. We do not have any private roads (other than alleys). We average 44-55" of snow each year. Our snow removal budget is about $5000 per year. For that, we get our interior sidewalks shoveled (at $55 per person on the shovel crew). The public sidewalks get plowed by a ATV with a plow attachment (at a cost of $90 an hour). Our city requires all sidewalks to be shoveled within 24 hours after a snow event. Though we set a 2" minimum for any snow removal. We also pay $.90 per lb of snow melt applied. Our snow removal company is the same as our landscaping company. If we optioned for our alleys to be plowed, it would be a $105 per hour with a minimum of 2 hours guaranteed. So we elected not to go with that option.

Our ongoing issues is that our snow removal company either applies way too much snow melt, misses entire areas altogether or their ATV causes deep gauges in our grass areas/breaks sprinkler heads. A supervisor is supposed to come by and check each of our 7 areas for proper snow removal (as a quality control check). That is part of our contract.

We are thinking of dropping the snow melt application. We will take it up in our next board meeting (in 2 weeks) because of the poor job they have done. The association can buy the same snow melt for $.17 per lb. We can apply it ourselves (I have volunteered) and save some money. I also shovel my immediate area to save additional money. It takes me about 15 minutes and I don't mind the exercise. I probably save the association about $20 per event.

With all that said, we just had 5" fall yesterday and we are set to get about 12" Saturday/Sunday.

TimB4 (Tennessee)
Posts: 21,062

Posted:

Just noticed that there are two threads (accidentally posted twice) for the same topic.

Both threads are getting answers.

Be sure to check the other thread as well at:

http://www.hoatalk.com/Forum/tabid/55/forumid/1/tpage/1/view/topic/postid/189251/Default.aspx#189311

HeathA
Posts: 9

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By TimB4 on 02/17/2015 5:00 PM
Just noticed that there are two threads (accidentally posted twice) for the same topic.

Both threads are getting answers.

Be sure to check the other thread as well at:

http://www.hoatalk.com/Forum/tabid/55/forumid/1/tpage/1/view/topic/postid/189251/Default.aspx#189311

Thanks Tim. Once I realized my message had posted twice I tried deleting one but didn't see that functionality.

Thanks to both of you for your feedback. Our documents say nothing about snow removal. I checked with the county and there are no regulations regarding snow removal, so I intend to bring this up in our next meeting to get feedback and go from there.

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