The courts say you cannot be sued for failing to clear the sidewalk in front of your home because you don't own it.

(KELLY HAYES / iNFOnews.ca)

It's considered a neighbourly thing to do in Kelowna, or anywhere else in B.C. -- clearing the sidewalk of ice and snow in front of your residence.

Some do it, some don't.

But if you don't, what happens if someone slips and falls, resulting in an injury? Can you be sued?

The simple answer is no. 

Several cases have established the precedent, the most recent is a B.C. Court of Appeal decision in 2021 involving a Burnaby man who was seriously injured after slipping on the sidewalk in front of a resident's home.

The man took the resident to court alleging the homeowner was negligent, arguing that a "property owner owes a common law duty of care to pedestrians using an adjacent sidewalk."

The homeowner argued that they "were not occupiers of the sidewalk as they were not in possession of it and did not otherwise have responsibility for or control over it." 

The judge agreed with the defendant and dismissed the case concluding that the "homeowner did not owe the complainant a duty of care."

The complainant also tried to sue the City of Burnaby but later dropped the complaint.

So the bar on liability has been set, but that doesn't mean homeowners are off the hook from clearing ice and snow from their adjacent sidewalks. There's still the issue of a fine under municipal bylaws.

Under Kelowna's bylaw for example, it requires "owners or occupiers of a property to remove snow and ice from the sidewalk bordering within 24 hours of the accumulation of snow ice." Failing to do so can result in a $50 fine.

The City said the ability to maintain such a bylaw is granted to municipalities by the Community Charter.

It adds that the bylaw is something the City would prefer not to enforce.

"The City prefers education as a better tool to encourage everyone who is able to pitch-in to help make our community safe during the Winter," it said.

Up until this year, the City had been taking a soft approach in dealing with sidewalk snow removal complaints.

Last year, it received 148 failure to clean sidewalk complaints, but not a single fine was issued.

So far this year, the City has received 172 complaints resulting in 10 tickets. 

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