Snow Plow

[BBFult]

Can landlords require tenants be responsible for snow removal on a single family residential lease in Alaska? Are there any stipulations concerning removal of snow from roofs, driveway, walkways?

[KarlaH]

The only time a landlord has to provide refuse and grounds maintenance is when there are more than 2 units.

[LynnSmith]

I always put into a lease. All grass must be maintained by tenant. All grass may not get more than 10" tall or tenant will cover cost to be cut. All snow and ice removal is tenants responsibility. Tenant is responsible for all traction control on the entire property. This is for a single family home.

[Chris Bend]

Yes, my lease states that the tenant must maintain the grounds. Their insurance policy also says the walkways have to be free of ice.

When I interview people I make it very clear that the benefit of renting a single-family house is that they get the privacy of a house without all of the major upkeep but they have to do the day-to-day upkeep. That is why most people want to rent a house.

[SLopez]

We have it clearly stated in the lease of the single family house we rent in anchorage that tenants are responsible for all snow removal on sidewalks and in the driveway.

I would never have them go on the roof because of the liability if they fall and there’s a good chance they would damage the shingles with the shovel when they are up there.

A compromise we had in the past with renting this property is that we hired a company to plow when there was more than 3 inches of snow, and tenants were responsible for less than 3 inches (but less 3 inches people didn’t shovel and just drove over it ). We moved away from that with the new tenant because private properties are at the bottom of the priority list when it comes to snow plowing and the companies will get there when they can. Most snow events we would still get calls from the tenant complaining that the plow had not come before they woke up for work.