Snow removal/ landlord question

[desiringsubject.livejournal.com]

So, here is (apparently) what the internet says about the landlord's responsibility to remove snow:

"SNOW REMOVAL: Every exit used or intended for use by occupants of
more than one dwelling unit or rooming unit shall be maintained free from
obstruction."

Our landlord removes snow to the front door, which is a path from the sidewalk to the door. They salt the staircase, etc. Excellent. They do not do anything to the backdoor. The back porch has several stairs down to the driveway, and then one walks on the driveway to get to the sidewalk. Are they responsible for the driveway parts? We have to walk the driveway if we exit that door (as do the residents of the other unit, since it's important in the law that more than one unit must use the space. It seems odd to me that we would have to shovel the path to the sidewalk from one exit and they to the other. Especially since that's the exit that gets plowed in (the street to the driveway.)

So, is this something I can complain about?

Oh, and, because it's important to me to note: my landlord is a corporation who hires a company to do our snow removal. So the people doing it are paid for their efforts and I'm not asking "little old man/woman who's renting out a room" to do major manual labor for my pleasure.

ETA: I didn't see last week's post on the issue, and someone linked below. Thanks!

Comments

[jadelennox]

Do you have a right to complain? Absolutely.

Have I ever had a landlord who did any shovelling at all? No. So go ahead and complain, but consider yourself lucky even if nothing changes. *g*

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

Same here -- we tenants have to do the shovelling because the landlord lives out of state. We could demand snow removal, but he hasn't raised our rents in almost a decade, so we shut up and shovel.

[wildflowersoul.livejournal.com]

Didn't we just go over landlord de-snowing/de-icing obligations less than a week ago?! (http://community.livejournal.com/davis_square/1068597.html)

You can complain about anything you want to. Whether your complaints will be effective... *shrug*

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

I'm no expert, but it sounds like a gray area to me. Technically the back door and driveway are "intended for use," but "free from obstruction" is open to interpretation. If the snow isn't so high that you can't shove the door open, one might argue that the door is sufficiently free from obstruction.

I mean, obviously you CAN complain about this. Will it get you anywhere? Who knows, that would depend on how nice your landlord corporation wants to be.

What are you going to do if you ask and they refuse? Are you prepared to actually take legal action over it? If not, why worry about what the law says / means?

[desiringsubject.livejournal.com]

My concern over the law was that I don't actually have any interest in asking my landlord to do anything that is over and above its legal obligation. I just want to know what that is. (And if I *did* want them to do more than their obligation, I'd *far* prefer an more efficient heating system to snow removal!)

[josephineave.livejournal.com]

I'm a landlord, and since I do the shoveling pretty much by myself, additional exits are pretty much ignored. I get the front walk, front steps and driveway. I ignore the back steps and sidewalk on the other side when it's a heavy snow. I figure you get one free exit for your money; additional exits are extra.

[alphacygni]

Can I just say - having a landlord who is also a general contractor, and keeps his truck behind the house, and thus clears the driveway out bright and early so he and his guys can head out? Awesome.

[tt02144.livejournal.com]

All I seem to hear are tenants complaining about lack of snow removal. Does it ever occur to anyone to clear a path themselves? Unless you're paying exhorbitant rents, why not? Who cares what the law says, can't you just work it out with your landlord? And by the way, I'm a landlord who clears everything, front and back, by hand. I do it for my own needs and my own safety. And yet......yesterday I got home around 4:30 and had to leave my car in the street while I shovelled the 2 feet of snow and dead leaves that the plow left across my driveway. Shovelled said driveway 3 more times during the evening. This morning, in order to get to work, I had to shovel again - this time about 3 feet of snow, ice, dead leaves, and slush. This is not fun - I am continually shovelling out an entire streets' worth of snow and noone seems to care. So until the city does something about this issue, I'm sure there are many landlords out there who have simply given up and shovel the bare minimum.

[desiringsubject.livejournal.com]

I have no desire for an argument, but I hope you can note that I did not complain. You wrote: "Does it ever occur to anyone to clear a path themselves?" and in fact, we have been doing it all along. But it has been unclear to me whose responsibility it was. I also made it clear that it's not one person doing the shoveling for the landlord, it's a landscaping company hired and specifically paid to do it. If they were not shoveling snow, as a landscaping company, they'd be largely without jobs all winter. I'm not a huge fan of the capitalist system, but this is one of the circumstances in which it seems to work: my landlord (a large, wealthy corporation) has money, and uses that money to pay people a reasonable wage to do things. Individual landlords do not get paid for shoveling, and the circumstance is different. And to "just work it out with your landlord" when your landlord is a large corporation does, in my opinion, suggest that you should know who the legally responsible party is. Unlike an individual who is likely to take a number of factors into consideration, our landlord tends to do things that are their legal responsibility to do, and nothing else. Which is fine, the laws around here are adequately good. We have heat, hot water, power and structural integrity. And frankly, I wanted to know at least in part because if they hired the landscaping company to shovel more, than a company in their down season receives more work and money to do something that I don't enjoy doing. It doesn't really seem like anyone loses here. And certainly, if we had an individual landlord, my attitude would be radically different.