{"id":46528,"date":"2019-01-15T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-01-15T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/skolnicklaw.com\/blog\/2019\/01\/what-you-need-to-know-about-snow-shoveling\/"},"modified":"2025-01-25T07:37:02","modified_gmt":"2025-01-25T12:37:02","slug":"what-you-need-to-know-about-snow-shoveling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/skolnicklaw.com\/what-you-need-to-know-about-snow-shoveling\/","title":{"rendered":"What you need to know about snow shoveling"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Winter has arrived in Ohio, and with it comes numerous slips and falls by pedestrians attempting to negotiate snow- and ice-covered sidewalks, driveways and parking lots. But will a court hold you liable for an injured pedestrian\u2019s damages if (s)he\u00a0<a href=\"\/practice-areas\/other-injury-claims\/slip-and-fall-premises-liability\/\">falls<\/a> on your unshoveled property?<\/p>\n<p>In general, the answer to that question is \u201cno.\u201d This is because Ohio follows the Natural Accumulation Rule, which says that \u201can owner of land ordinarily owes no duty to business invitees to remove natural accumulations of ice and snow from the walkways on the premises or to warn the invitee of the dangers associated therewith.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Homeowner responsibility<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The above quote makes it sound like the Natural Accumulation Rule applies only to commercial property owners, but in fact, it applies to homeowners as well. In 1993, the Ohio Supreme Court held that people\u00a0walk at their own risk \u201cwhen Mother Nature calls,\u201d and that \u201cOhio homeowners are not obligated to remove natural accumulations of snow and ice.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Cleveland city ordinances<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Just because you likely will not have to pay damages if an injured pedestrian sues you, however, does not mean that you can blithely ignore the snow and ice that Mother Nature dumps on your property. Cleveland City Ordinance\u00a0CCO 507.13 makes it illegal for you not to remove snow and ice from your sidewalk. Per this ordinance, you must remove it by 9:00 a.m.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, CCO 411.02 requires you to put any snow you shovel on your own property, not on your neighbor\u2019s property or in the street. If the Department of Public Service has to come out and remove the snow, you could have to pay the expenses therefor per CCO 507.13.<\/p>\n<p>Under CCO 507.99, failure to remove your snow and ice could subject you to a fine for each day it remains on your property. However, if you absolutely cannot remove it for whatever reason, you must instead treat your sidewalk with a sufficient amount of salt, sand or other substance to make your sidewalk reasonably safe for pedestrians to walk on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Winter has arrived in Ohio, and with it comes numerous slips and falls by pedestrians attempting to negotiate snow- and ice-covered sidewalks, driveways and parking lots. But will a court hold you liable for an injured pedestrian\u2019s damages if (s)he\u00a0falls on your unshoveled property? In general, the answer to that question is \u201cno.\u201d This is because Ohio follows the Natural&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-personal-injury"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.1 (Yoast SEO v24.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Cleveland Snow Removal Laws Every Homeowner Should Know<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Protect yourself from legal risks by understanding snow shoveling responsibilities for homeowners in Cleveland, OH.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/skolnicklaw.com\/what-you-need-to-know-about-snow-shoveling\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What you need to know about snow shoveling\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Protect yourself from legal risks by understanding snow shoveling responsibilities for homeowners in Cleveland, OH.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/skolnicklaw.com\/what-you-need-to-know-about-snow-shoveling\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Personal Injury Lawyer Cleveland | Car Accident Attorney\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-01-15T00:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-01-25T12:37:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta 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