Case notes - part 2

Snow joke

In some other countries you can be under a legal obligation to clear not only your own driveway but also the section of pavement immediately outside of your property. If you don’t and someone has an accident then you are liable. In this country that responsibility will normally fall upon the local Council. But, what about clearing your own paths? Do you make yourself ‘more liable’ if you do something and then someone has an accident? Are you better off just leaving the snow and the ice where it is?

As an occupier you are under a legal duty to take all ‘reasonable care’ to ensure the reasonable safety of someone coming onto your property. So, as with many aspects of the law, it could be argued either way. Pouring boiling water onto your front step to clear the snow only for that water to later turn to ice wouldn’t seem the most sensible option. And shovelling away the snow but not putting down any grit on the ice underneath may well not pass the ‘reasonableness’ test. In some cases, if there is snow on the ground and it offers some kind of grip under foot then ‘doing nothing’ to clear it away may in fact prove to be the best option. It is all a matter of taking the most sensible course of action.