Winter weather brings the possibility of snow and ice, and churches are responsible for snow and ice removal. This is particularly important, as it is your duty to provide safe access to your property. Commercial or business insurance is designed to protect the building owner and/or manager from claims and litigation should a third party fall as a result of ice or snow buildup on your walkway or stairs.

Here are some of the legal issues involved

1. It is the building owner’s legal duty to exercise ordinary care to keep pathways reasonably safe.
2. A reasonable person would expect building owners to maintain walkways and stairs.
3. If snow and ice are present, the normal or prudent person would expect it to be cleared.
4. The responsible party should take preventative measures to maintain safe premises.

Many towns, cities and states have laws on the books requiring property owners to remove snow from their property. For example, as of 2014, property owners in Massachusetts are legally required to remove snow and ice from any area where visitors, tenants, or the general public might travel frequently.

A court may not expect or require that snow and ice removal be conducted at the same time of the buildup. But a reasonable time frame might be 24 hours. Also, courts might expect that the snow and ice removal be completed, and rock salt be placed in the most dangerous areas within a reasonable time frame.

Tags: church liability insurance, Workers safety program

This entry was posted on December 12, 2017 at 6:20 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Posted in Church Risk Church Safety by Scott Stuart Comments Off on Can Snow Removal Help Reduce Trip & Fall Claims?