Submitted by Teagaroo t3_10k6beu in RhodeIsland

I live in an apartment and our driveway is on a hill. When I went out around 8AM this morning, the driveway was completely ice and I had to slide my way to my car. I know it’s not the smartest thing but I needed to leave for work, so I gassed it up the hill. I started slipping back but aimed towards a patch of grass and then gassed it from there.

My roommates are still at home and are nervous about leaving because they don’t think their cars can make it. The management just hasn’t salted it or anything. Plus, the stairs were slippery and nearly everyone almost hurt themselves already.

If someone’s car got damaged or if we got hurt, is there anything we can do? If we salt it ourselves, can we require to be paid back? I’m young and don’t know how any of this works. 🥲

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Far-Soup5169 t1_j5p0g2a wrote

Rhode Island's Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, Section 34-18-22, requires residential landlords to keep common areas, including sidewalks, steps and parking lots, in a reasonably safe condition – which includes removing ice and snow.

Inform your landlord in some type of written correspondence (email) that multiple people have almost been hurt so far, and that this is a safety hazard. This covers anyone in the future who may get hurt by the landlords negligence.

The actual snow removal may be defined as the tenants responsibility in the lease, but the landlord is still required to make sure at least one exit to the domicile is safe and ice-free.

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Teagaroo OP t1_j5p1jp3 wrote

Thank you so much, I’ll contact them

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_CaesarAugustus_ t1_j5qcfrn wrote

This right here. Great job pulling up the corresponding Act and sections.

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Simon_Jester88 t1_j5oo31l wrote

Snow removal is usually an issue covered in the lease. If there is nothing stated I do not believe that the property manager has any obligation.

This could be different city to city state to state.

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Brodyftw00 t1_j5outut wrote

Idk RI law but MA requires snow removal for shared common parking/driveways. If it's a separate driveway then it's normally on the tenants to clean it.

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ghogan1010 t1_j5q0wei wrote

The short answer is no. You’re at the mercy of the elements and it would be extremely difficult to prove any kind of negligence. All snow was pretty much melted by early morning and it’s very easy for a landlord to say “plow/landscaper hasn’t gotten there yet”.

You’d be doing everyone a favor by doing it yourself on days like today where there wasn’t much need for professional company to come out as it was cleared by 9:00 due to weather. I’m sure most landlords will spring for a $29 bucket of rock salt.

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Teagaroo OP t1_j5vj9xh wrote

I went out and got salt. :) thank you

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Wooden_Exit2957 t1_j5ooge7 wrote

Ask your landlord why it hasn’t been cleared. If there is no answer or an inadequate response, purchase salt and a shovel.

Melt and remove the ice and snow.

Reduce rent by the cost of the salt and shovel Include receipts when mailing the rent, less expenses.

Snow removal and maintenance should be mentioned in your lease agreement. When a big storm comes, you’ll want to know beforehand whether or not you will be responsible for clearing the driveway.

I enjoy shoveling and had $50 taken off my rent in months I had to remove snow.

With inflation, I’d push for $75 now

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Teagaroo OP t1_j5oxu21 wrote

Perfect, thanks so much. I definitely think at this point just doing it ourselves would be best. Thanks again!

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noungning t1_j5pcqwb wrote

Gassing it isn't always great since if it's snow, it'd cause the surface area to flatten and cause less friction. I did this once and slid backwards and hit the curb. A neighbor who helped me off the curb said it's best to go slow and turn your wheel in a wide zigzap pattern heading upward. Which did help me get up the hill.

As for if it's all ice and no friction at all, I think you can try cat litter on the surface. But if you have none, if you do have rock salt, I'd try that too but that's a lot of surface for you to cover.

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Teagaroo OP t1_j5vjdqc wrote

Oh wow okay, thank you. I didn’t know that :)

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_CaesarAugustus_ t1_j5qccn4 wrote

These are valuable questions. Step One would be to check your lease/rental agreement. Step Two would be to check the RI laws on Landlord-Tenant responsibility. I am pretty sure they’re supposed to keep walking areas and parking areas safe at a basic level. Salt and sand for example.

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Proof-Variation7005 t1_j5opo4k wrote

How many units are attached to the driveway? I've only really lived in double/triple decker apartments where the only way the landlord is bothering with the driveway is if the dude lived upstairs or was tight with a plow person. But all my landlords have been super small-time ones

Either way, I'd just ask the landlord and maybe don't wait overnight for anything to freeze.

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Teagaroo OP t1_j5oy0dg wrote

Its three floors, but it’s owned by a group and they have multiple buildings. They’ve been inattentive in general but an icy hill is tough!!

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Proof-Variation7005 t1_j5oyi64 wrote

Gotcha. Yeah, I'd check the lease, reach out, and maybe check with the other tenants before we have a real storm.

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commandantskip t1_j5piorg wrote

In the last apartment we lived in, snow removal was covered. In reality, my husband and son would got shovel our sidewalk and driveway bc our landlord worked full time and wouldn't make it before dinner time.

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brick1972 t1_j5qye4f wrote

They are responsible to keep an egress safe.

That said generally speaking there is a pretty wide tolerance for the timeframe - it will vary by city. Pawtucket for instance is 12 hours of "daylight" which I guess could extend more than 1 day but generally what they mean is that if the snow stops overnight the property owners have the day to clear it. If the snow stops at 1 PM, you have to clear it by 1 AM. That kind of thing. Every town is slightly different. RI general law I believe in 24 hours after the storm clears - this applies to things like sidewalks and businesses state wide.

HOWEVER, since the fucking cities don't bother enforcing this stuff on busy pedestrian streets and barely do it on their own properties, I think it will be harder to get code enforcement on your side than you think. Sorry that's just reality.

Tenants with special time needs are often left on their own, which for most storms means you have to figure out how to get to work in the morning after an overnight storm. That's just life. Yes, this law protects you if you have a slip and fall but getting injured and going to court isn't that fun either.

They should at least provide you with the means to take care of it yourself when you need to. Just a bit of ice melt this morning's ice would have been fine. I would request that and let them know about today's situation.

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Accomplished-Tie557 t1_j5t9c0a wrote

Where is the apartment and is it part of a complex or just a stand alone unit or two?

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ovary-achiever t1_j5tpdjf wrote

Take lots of pictures and screen shot all texts to the landlord.

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Dopey-NipNips t1_j5t21n5 wrote

You're a bad driver and dangerous to be around.

Regardless of what your landlord is supposed to do you're going to wreck your car or drive into someone's house.

A bag of play sand is $5.99 at ace hardware

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