Address Snow Removal Services in Lease

Effectively managing snow and ice accumulations is a critical component of maintaining commercial properties in a safe condition. Tenants typically want owners to be responsible for snow and ice removal, and owners want to maintain full control of when and how that gets accomplished. But it’s important to specify this in the lease, if that’s how you want to handle snow removal at your property. Confusing snow removal situations can lead to frustration, disputes, injuries, and reduced sales—especially during the holiday season—which can adversely affect percentage rents, as well as strain owner-tenant relations. Ask your attorney about using this Model Lease Language in provisions that obligate only you to provide snow removal services at your property.

            Model Lease Language

Landlord agrees to maintain the Parking Lot for the benefit of all Tenants, including [insert tenant’s name]. Such maintenance will include [insert services, e.g., repairs, striping], and removal of snow and ice according to these terms and conditions: [insert terms and conditions of snow removal, e.g., which areas will be plowed, the minimum snow accumulation amount before plowing, sanding/salting, and/or shoveling will begin, if the plowing will begin automatically or only upon request from the owner/manager, times that the plowing will be done, etc.].

Make this language as detailed as possible. If you decide to require the tenant to provide its own snow removal services and hire a contractor to do so, negotiate in your lease for the right to approve any prospective snow removal contractor before the tenant signs a contract with it. Make your approval of the contractor “to Landlord’s sole satisfaction.” And, if you approve the tenant’s contractor, require the tenant to give you a copy of the contract for your files. That way, if it isn’t performing the services the tenant has hired it to do and that’s endangering the property, your managers will be able to inform the tenant that the services in the contract that you approved of aren’t being provided, that it’s causing a problem, and that it needs to quickly resolve the issue with the contractor.

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