City told me to shovel a sidewalk I don't own....or else

In My Humble Opinion
1

I currently rent a corner store lot in town. According to my lease I am responsible for the frontage of my store.

Today a city official told me I was to immediately remove the snow around the corner which is about 200 feet and is the parking for the upstairs tenants, and realistically another store (really weird setup)

I’m not really thinking of doing this, but te way they approached me bugged the crap out of me.

Could I bill the city for my time when they asked me to shovel a sidewalk that legally has nothing to do with me or my store?

Again…not going to bill the city, just curious.

2

How do you know it legally it has nothing to do with you or your store? You said you are leasing the space. If the owner of your leased space also owns the rest of that building, and the building is zoned as business with your store as the primary address, then the city is going to come to you.

3

The lease tells me I am responsible for the store frontage. Assuming the tenants are responsible for the side, where they enter their residence.

4

I’d say it’s the owner/lessor’s problem to sort out. Contact him/them/it immediately.

5

I would expect that the owner is responsible for such things. If the city is asking you to do something not required by your lease, then they need to contact the owner, or one of his other lessees who might have agreed to take care of it.

6

Or else what?

7

Death by Ooga Booga.

8

Just shovel it. Walkers (like me) will appreciate it.

A suburb near me is sending a shoveling bill to property owners today if they haven’t removed the snow that fell on Sunday. If you got such a bill you could probably send it on to the building owner - who knows if they’d pay.

9

Fines…and then a death by ooga booga.

10

I’d find out what “frontage” means. It can be the front OR anything that faces a street. Corner lots have at least two sides of frontage, three if the building runs the full length of the block. It sounds like it’s your responsibility, if you’re responsible for the “frontage”.

11

Could you? Sure – and get bupkis. I can’t even recover damages from a city street they knew was dangerous and failed to mark (small sinkhole) so I can’t see this floating anywhere much.

12

We have a by law that the snow must be removed 12 hours from the snow stopping. The thing is if I walked past a store that had snow on the side walk, I am not sure I would be feeling the love, as a potential patron I do not care what the lease says, I care about safe walking conditions.

13

Not saying your issue isn’t real as the tenant just that I would ensure pedestrians safety for safety sake and liability. You may want to have a lawyer look over your lease.

14

I’d recommend asking the landlord to stump up for a snow blower. Oh, and if there is a hydrant out front, definitely do not wait for the fire department, shovel that out yourself, because it’s not the firehouse that will burn down.

I received a a fine for not removing the snow at a building I didn’t own, quite some time ago, when the interweb was new and shiny. I mentioned it to a friend who found the actual owner in under ten minutes (if you remember dial-up modems, you will be impressed).

I still had to go to court, but I had such fun in that preliminary hearing.