Strata Snow Removal Requirements in BC: A Council's Duty

If you sit on a strata council in British Columbia, winter maintenance is one of the few responsibilities where a bad season can turn into a lawsuit. Snow and ice on common property isn’t a nice-to-have — the corporation has a legal duty to keep it safe, and how the council discharges that duty (and whether it can prove it did) is what determines exposure. Here’s what the obligation actually is, and what a defensible program looks like on the North Shore.

The duty: Strata Property Act, section 72

The BC Strata Property Act governs strata corporations, and section 72 sets out the core obligation: the corporation must repair and maintain common property and common assets. The Act doesn’t use the words “snow removal,” but common property plainly includes the driveways, parking areas, walkways, stairs, and entrances that residents and visitors cross — and keeping those reasonably safe in winter falls squarely inside the repair-and-maintenance duty.

A few practical consequences follow:

• The duty is the corporation’s, not an individual owner’s. Volunteers and a caretaker with a bag of salt don’t discharge a council-level obligation across a whole property.
• Limited common property (assigned patios, private steps, allocated stalls) is where responsibility gets murky. Your bylaws should state clearly who clears what; if they’re silent, the corporation’s general duty still applies.
• Bylaws can also authorize the council to enter a seasonal snow removal contract without a 3/4 vote, and can earmark contingency funds for it — worth confirming before winter.

The municipal layer: the 10 a.m. sidewalk bylaw

The Strata Property Act isn’t the only source of obligation. North Shore municipalities — the City and District of North Vancouver, and West Vancouver — have their own bylaws requiring the owner or occupier to clear snow and ice from the public sidewalks adjacent to the property, commonly by 10 a.m. the day after snowfall.

For a strata, that means the corporation is responsible not just for internal walkways but for the public sidewalk running along its frontage. Miss it and you’re exposed on two fronts: a municipal fine, and — far more serious — liability if a pedestrian is injured on an uncleared stretch the bylaw told you to clear. Elevation matters here too: a North Vancouver property up the hill will trip these bylaws more often than one near the water, so the plan has to assume more frequent events, not fewer.

What “due diligence” looks like to a council

The legal standard running underneath all of this — through the Occupiers Liability Act — is reasonable care, not perfection. Nobody expects bare pavement in the middle of an active storm. What a council is expected to have is a system, followed and recorded. Due diligence, in practice, is:

1. A professional contract in place before the season — with defined trigger depths, response times, scope, and de-icing protocols, not a handshake.
2. A site risk map — north-facing walks that freeze first, shaded stalls, spots below downspouts, sloped drives — with those areas flagged for priority salting and pre-treatment.
3. Proactive treatment, including anti-icing ahead of forecast freezes rather than reacting after ice forms. The commercial snow response plan checklist walks a council through building this.
4. Owner communication — who the contractor is, expected service levels, and what owners handle on their own limited common property.

Documentation is the defence

When a slip-and-fall claim lands, the case rarely turns on whether snow ever got cleared — it turns on whether the council can show what was done and when. A council that can produce time-stamped service logs, before-and-after photos, weather records, and a written contract showing proactive service levels is in a completely different legal position than one whose best evidence is “we’re pretty sure someone came by.”

This is why GPS- and photo-verified records matter beyond operations: they’re the paper trail that demonstrates reasonable care. Insurers notice too — some reduce premiums for strata corporations that can show a proactive, professionally managed program, so good documentation can pay for part of itself.

Pre-season checklist for councils

• Review and, if needed, update bylaws to assign winter responsibility (common vs limited common property).
• Award a seasonal contract (October 1 – April 30) by early fall — the best contractors are committed by November.
• Verify the contractor’s commercial liability insurance and consider being named as an additional insured.
• Get the property satellite-measured so the quote reflects actual surface areas.
• Map high-risk areas and set priority treatment.
• Confirm documentation: time-stamped logs, photos, weather records for every event.
• Review the corporation’s own insurance limits for slip-and-fall coverage.

A well-run winter program protects residents first and the corporation second, and it does both far more cheaply than a single serious injury claim. If your council wants a documented, weather-triggered program with photo-verified records, call (604) 990-7072 or request a quote and we’ll measure the property and map it before the season starts.

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This article is general information for BC strata councils, not legal advice. For guidance on your corporation’s specific bylaws, insurance, and obligations, consult a lawyer or your strata management professional.