Blog · Waterloo

Snow removal at Waterloo rental properties and student houses: who is responsible, the landlord or the tenant?

As far as the City of Waterloo is concerned, the property owner is responsible for clearing snow and ice from the sidewalk at a rental house, and the City lists snow and ice removal among the property standards a landlord must meet. A lease clause asking tenants to shovel is an arrangement between you and them; it does not move the City's duty, the complaint or the clean-up bill off the owner.

Last updated October 24, 2026 · Reviewed by the Waterloo Snow Removal team

Is the landlord or the tenant responsible for snow removal in Waterloo?

The landlord, in every way that involves the City. Waterloo's sidewalk snow removal page puts the 24-hour duty to clear snow and ice on property owners, and the City's tenant and landlord rights page lists snow and ice removal among the property standards landlords must meet, alongside yard maintenance and keeping the property free of litter and debris. The fines for an uncleared sidewalk and the City's clean-up costs are billed to the owner.

The Province adds a layer. The Landlord and Tenant Board's maintenance and repairs brochure says a landlord must keep a rental property in a good state of repair and must make sure it meets health, safety, housing and maintenance standards, which come from municipal by-laws where they exist. Waterloo's property standards are those by-laws. The brochure lists a tenant's responsibilities as keeping the unit clean and repairing damage they cause; it does not list shovelling the sidewalk.

Can a lease make tenants shovel?

You can write it in, and many Waterloo landlords do, but understand what it is and is not. It is a private agreement about who picks up the shovel. It is not a transfer of the by-law duty, so if the sidewalk is reported the City deals with you, and if someone slips on the ice the claim names the owner. Whether a snow-shovelling clause is enforceable against a tenant at all is a question for the Landlord and Tenant Board and a lawyer, not a snow contractor, and the City's own guidance page notes that it is general information rather than legal advice.

The practical problem is bigger than the legal one. Student tenants in Northdale and around the universities leave for two or three weeks in December and again at reading week, which is exactly when the storms come and the complaints are filed. A clause that says the tenants will shovel does nothing when nobody is in the house.

Rental licensing and property standards in Waterloo

Most landlords renting units in low-rise residential buildings in Waterloo need a licence under the City's Rental Housing Licensing Bylaw; high-rise apartments and condominiums are currently exempt. A licensed property is a property the City already has on file and can inspect, and the City enforces property and lot maintenance standards and fire safety requirements on licensed properties. Anyone can request a property standards inspection or report a concern to the City's rental housing team, and tenants are told how on the City's rental pages. For a landlord that means an uncleared sidewalk is not just a by-law ticket risk; it is a property standards matter on a licensed property, which is a worse place to be.

Three practical consequences:

Keep a record. Dated visit logs from a contractor, or dated photos if you do it yourself, are what you want when a complaint or a slip claim arrives.
Cover the gaps. Holiday breaks, exam periods and summer sublets with half the house empty are when the frontage goes unshovelled.
Do not rely on tenants' cars moving. During a declared snow event parking is banned on city streets, so a student house with six cars ends up with all of them on the driveway, and the driveway cannot be cleared until they are shuffled.

What does a sidewalk service for landlords include?

For a rental, the public sidewalk is the legal exposure and the driveway is the convenience, and they can be contracted separately. A student rental sidewalk package from the contractor we book for Waterloo covers the public sidewalk along the frontage, the side on a corner lot, and ice control between storms so the City's ice build-up trigger is met as well as the snowfall one. Several addresses go on one agreement with one invoice, and each property gets a visit record. The path from the sidewalk to the front door can be added; the driveway can be left to the tenants, or added as a seasonal driveway contract for houses where the landlord wants no shovel in the picture at all.

The agreement should state the trigger depth, that ice control is included, which addresses are covered and what the visit record looks like. It should not promise a completion hour. Waterloo's own plows work to 16 to 24 hours on residential streets after snow stops, and a sidewalk route across the city is not faster than that in a storm.

Where the snow goes at a rental house

Onto the property, not the road. The City's snow event page says not to push snow from driveways or parking lots onto the road, and section 181 of Ontario's Highway Traffic Act prohibits depositing snow or ice on a roadway without the road authority's written permission. On a narrow Northdale lot with a widened driveway and almost no lawn, the stacking spot is the first thing a contractor looks at on the site visit. Snow piled against the neighbour's fence or over the City sidewalk creates its own complaint.

What this means for your quote

Tell the contractor how many frontages, which are corner lots, and whether you want the sidewalk only or the walk and driveway too. Clustered addresses in the same few blocks price better than scattered ones because the route is shorter. If you are also near the Uptown core, the Uptown Waterloo page covers mixed-use buildings with storefront frontages. Planning ranges are on the Waterloo snow removal cost page, and you can list the addresses here to start.

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