As the cold weather and winter season descends upon the northeast, the risks and exposures for landlords, and their tenant filled properties, significantly increases. Such risks from the property perspective include: ice dams, fire from improper disposal of cigarette ashes / smoking in apartments, frozen / bursting pipes, fire from exhaust fan build-up, fire from dryer vent build-up, water damage from
Hot water heater malfunctions, neglected or improper servicing of heating equipment, Christmas season fire hazards from lights, candles, etc, roof / water leakage due to accumulation of snow on roof structures. Such risks from a liability perspective include: slip and fall incidents resulting from snow & ice along driveways, parking lots, sidewalks and walkways. Improper or malfunction exterior lighting (due to cold & snow) resulting in tenant injuries. Malfunctioning battery-operated smoke detectors due to tenant removal of detector batteries or equipment breakdown of older detectors while the list of landlord / tenant exposures is much greater than just the above, the examples mentioned here tend to be the most common.
Risk mitigation techniques of all the above-mentioned exposures, the one area experiencing the greatest upward trend is slip and fall incidents resulting from snow & ice along driveways, parking lots, sidewalks and walkways.
The most effective means for a landlord to protect themselves from slip & fall incidents is to transfer this risk to a third party who is responsible for the snow removal (ie. Hiring a qualified snow removal contractor). A qualified snow removal contractor should have the proper insurance coverage limits in place to handle a slip & fall occurrence. In addition, the snow removal contractor should have completed operations coverage for slip and fall occurrences that arise after the contractor has left the plowed / shoveled area. Landlords should require that the snow removal contractor list the landlord on the contractor’s insurance policy as an “additionally insured”.
What this does is make the contractor’s insurance primary (meaning it defends the landlord) if the landlord is dragged into a slip and fall lawsuit which was a result of the contractor’s snowplowing activities. Lastly, the landlord should have a hold-harmless agreement put in place between them (the landlord) and the contractor. These are all measures that a landlord should rely on a qualified insurance agent to assist them with.