Snow Removal in Nova Scotia Rentals: Landlord or Tenant?

The first storm of the winter is the moment a lot of Halifax landlords find out what their lease says about snow, usually because a tenant has phoned to ask who is coming to clear the driveway. The answer is in the lease, not the Act. The rest of this guide covers what the lease can and cannot settle: the public sidewalk, a fall on the steps, and a tenant who has agreed to shovel and does not.

Quotations are from the Standard Form of Lease Regulations (Form P), N.S. Reg. 19/2025 as amended to N.S. Reg. 120/2026; the Residential Tenancies Act as consolidated to 3 October 2025; the Occupiers' Liability Act, 1996, c. 27; and HRM By-laws S-300 and M-200, all read on 20 October 2026.

The lease decides, and Form P has a box for each answer

The Residential Tenancies Act does not contain the word "snow". Neither do the statutory conditions in s.9(1), which every Nova Scotia lease carries. The question is left to the lease, and that means the province's standard form: s.8(2A) provides for a standard form of lease "which must be used by all landlords and tenants", and the current one took effect on 30 April 2025.

Section 16 of Form P lists snow removal twice.

• Under "The rent includes", alongside heat, water, parking and lawn care, is a box for snow removal. Directly beneath that list the form says: "The landlord is responsible for providing these services and the deletion of a service is deemed to be a rental increase."
• Under "The tenant is responsible for", alongside lawn care, garbage removal and tenant insurance, is a second box for snow removal.

Two boxes on one form are a narrow answer to a broad question. "Snow removal" does not say which areas, how soon after a storm, or who buys the salt. Section 17 of Form P, "Additional obligations", is blank space for exactly that, and it is where the detail belongs: the driveway and parking pad, the front and back steps, the walkway to the door, the path to the garbage bins, any secondary exit, how soon after a snowfall stops, and who supplies the salt or sand and the shovel.

Write it on both copies. Section 8(1) of the Act allows the parties to add benefits and obligations that do not conflict with the Act, and s.8(2) makes an additional obligation "void unless it appears on both the landlord's and tenant's copies of the standard form of lease". A snow clause on your copy alone is not a term.

When the lease is silent

A lot of leases still in force predate the April 2025 form or were filled in quickly, and neither box is ticked. Nothing in the Act fills the gap.

It is tempting to reach for Statutory Condition 1, which requires the landlord to keep the premises "in a good state of repair and fit for habitation" and to comply with any law "respecting standards of health, safety or housing". It does not mention snow, and a snowfall is not a state of disrepair, so we do not lean on its repair duty for snow. Its second half, compliance with health and safety law, is where By-law M-200's rules on a clear way out of the building come in (see the checklist below).

What the silence leaves is a practical question of who controls the space.

• Common areas in a multi-unit building: shared entrances, shared walkways, a shared lot. No single tenant has possession of these, and the landlord is the one with responsibility for and control over them. Treat them as yours whatever the lease says.
• A single house or a unit with its own entrance: the tenant is in physical possession and the expectation is often that they clear their own steps, but "often" is not a term. This is the case where a silent lease produces a dispute.

The fix costs nothing. At the next renewal or new lease, tick a box and use section 17. Mid-tenancy, an agreement in writing signed by both sides is worth more than a remembered conversation, but read the next section first if it moves a service away from the rent.

The public sidewalk is HRM's. The windrow at the end of the driveway is not.

HRM's winter operations page is direct about the sidewalk: "The municipality is responsible for clearing all public sidewalks in the Halifax region." It gives a schedule by priority: sidewalks intersecting main roads within 12 hours of a weather event, those along transit routes and in front of schools within 18, and those on local roads within 36.

The same page draws the line at the property: "Residents and businesses are responsible for clearing their own driveways and pathways, including any snow that has been plowed in." That includes the bank of snow a street plow leaves across the end of a driveway; HRM's answer to why it happens ends, "Shovelling driveways is the responsibility of residents." In a rental, which resident is decided by the lease, as above.

By-law S-300, the Streets By-law, is the rule behind this, and three parts of it matter to a landlord.

1. Where HRM does not clear, the owner must. Section 4(1) requires the owner, "except where snow removal service is provided by the Municipality", to clear any abutting sidewalk to bare pavement within twelve hours after a snowfall ends, or six hours after daylight if it stops overnight. The by-law's definition of "owner" covers part owners, joint owners and the person assessed for the property. It names no lessee or occupier, although the by-law's separate definition of "abutter" does. So where this duty applies, read it as the owner's whatever the lease says.
2. Nobody may put snow in the street. Section 4(2): "No person shall deposit snow or ice on the travelled way of any street." That includes a tenant with a shovel, a snowblower thrown across the road, and a contractor clearing a driveway. HRM's guidance says property owners "must ensure the snow they clear is piled on their own property."
3. The cost lands on the property. Under s.6, where an owner fails to clear as the by-law requires, HRM may post an Order to Remove Snow and Ice, clear it after 24 hours, and recover the cost as a lien against the property, collected like property taxes. A lien attaches to the property, so it reaches the owner even when the lease made the tenant responsible.

Section 5 adds icicles: "No person shall permit icicles to accumulate on any part of a structure owned or occupied by them so as to become dangerous to persons passing on the street." Owned or occupied, so this one can reach both of you.

Who is liable when someone falls

This is the question that makes snow removal more than a chore, and it is the one a lease box answers least well.

Nova Scotia's Occupiers' Liability Act replaces the common-law rules on what an occupier owes people who come onto a property (s.3). Section 4(1) sets the duty: "to take such care as in all the circumstances of the case is reasonable to see that each person entering on the premises and the property brought on the premises by that person are reasonably safe while on the premises." Section 4(2)(a) applies it to "the condition of the premises", and ice on a step is the ordinary example of one.

Three provisions matter to a landlord.

• There can be more than one occupier. Section 2(a) defines an occupier as a person "in physical possession of premises" or a person "who has responsibility for, and control over, the condition of premises", and adds that "there may be more than one occupier of the same premises". A tenant in possession and a landlord in control of a shared walkway can both be occupiers of it.
• A landlord responsible for maintenance or repair owes the occupier's duty. Section 9(1): "Where under a lease of premises a landlord is responsible for the maintenance or repair of the premises, the landlord owes the same duty to each person entering on the premises as is owed by the occupier of the premises." Section 9(4) deems obligations imposed on a landlord "by any law" to be imposed under the lease, and Statutory Condition 1's repair duty arguably is one, which on its face would bring most residential landlords within s.9(1).
• A competent contractor helps. Under s.8(1), where damage is caused "solely by the negligence of an independent contractor engaged by the occupier", the occupier is not liable on that account if they "exercised reasonable care in the selection of the independent contractor" and it was reasonable that the work be done.

Put together: a lease that makes the tenant responsible for snow is real evidence of who was meant to clear it, and it should be in every lease where that is the arrangement. It does not, on the face of the Act, guarantee that the landlord owes nothing to a visitor who falls on a shared step. Nor does a lease clause saying the landlord owes visitors nothing: under s.7, a restriction of the duty binds a person only if it is reasonable in all the circumstances, and the occupier must take reasonable steps to bring it to that person's attention, which is hard to say of a visitor who has never seen the lease. How a court would divide responsibility after a fall turns on the facts, and that is a question for a lawyer and your insurer rather than for a guide. What you control is the paperwork and the practice: a clear lease term, common areas that you clear yourself or contract out, a contractor chosen with some care, and a record.

One point that comes up often: the Act does not apply to a municipality "as the occupier of a highway, public walkway or public sidewalk" (s.12(2)), so a fall on the public sidewalk out front is not an Occupiers' Liability Act claim against HRM. Where S-300 puts the clearing of a sidewalk on the owner, that is a by-law duty, and what it means after a fall is again a question for a lawyer.

Changing who clears the snow during a tenancy

From you to the tenant. If the lease says the rent includes snow removal, you cannot simply stop. The Act says so in s.11(4): "The deletion or withdrawal of a service is deemed to constitute a rental increase." Section 11(5) adds that where a discontinued service reduces the tenant's use and enjoyment of the premises, its value "is deemed to be a rent increase". Form P repeats the rule under section 16: the landlord "is responsible for providing these services and the deletion of a service is deemed to be a rental increase." Statutory Condition 2 comes at it from the other side, and adds a second route: where a landlord provides a service or facility "reasonably related to the tenant's continued use and enjoyment of the premises", the landlord "shall not discontinue providing that service to the tenant without proper notice of a rental increase or without permission from the Director". The list in that condition names heat, water and garbage collection, not snow, but it is expressly not exhaustive, and Form P's own wording covers every service in section 16.

So handing snow removal to the tenant mid-tenancy is a rent increase in law, and every limit on increases in s.11 applies to it:

• No increase in the first twelve months of any tenancy (s.11(1)), and no more than one in any twelve-month period (s.11(2), (3)). If you have already raised the rent this year, dropping snow removal now would be a second increase.
• Written notice stating the amount and effective date: four months for a year-to-year or month-to-month tenancy, eight weeks for week-to-week (s.11(2)). Our step-by-step guide to raising the rent covers the notice.
• A fixed-term lease is different. Section 11(3) requires a fixed-term lease to "indicate the amount and effective dates of any increases". If yours did not provide for this one, a notice does not create it, and the practical answer is the next lease.

The other route in Statutory Condition 2 is the Director's permission. In practice the cleaner moment for any of this is a new lease.

From the tenant to you. Taking a chore on yourself costs the tenant nothing and needs no notice, but write it down, signed by both of you, so that the lease and what actually happens stop disagreeing.

When the tenant is responsible and does not shovel

The steps are unglamorous, and the order matters.

1. Ask in writing, the first time. A text or email after a missed storm, naming the area and the lease term, starts a record and usually ends the problem.
2. Clear it yourself if it is dangerous. An icy step is not something to leave while a disagreement runs its course. Keep the contractor's invoice and a dated photo.
3. Do not bill a snow fee on top of the rent. Section 12(1) of the Act provides that where a landlord obtains from a tenant "any sum of money or other value that is in addition to the rent payable", it "is deemed to be a security deposit", with the half-month cap and the trust account that come with one. Read literally, that reaches a monthly snow charge, and arguably a reimbursement collected informally alongside the rent.
4. Do not expect the deposit to cover it. Section 12(3) allows a deposit to be applied "to outstanding rent or to expenses incurred in respect of damage to residential premises that is the responsibility of the tenant". A snow contractor's invoice is neither rent nor damage. And keeping any part of a deposit needs either the tenant's written consent or a Form R claim within ten days of the end of the tenancy (s.12A(2)); our security deposit guide covers that clock.
5. Use the Director for the cost. A contractor's invoice you paid because the tenant breached a lease term is a claim for compensation on Form J, the same application used for damage beyond the deposit, or for an order requiring the tenant to comply with the lease.

A missed shovelling is not a ground for a Form E notice to quit. Section 10(7B) allows that notice only for a breach of Statutory Condition 3 or 4 (good behaviour, and interior cleanliness and damage) or of s.9B(1) (assigning or subletting without consent), and snow removal is none of those. If the arrangement is not working, the better answer is often at renewal: make it yours, and price it into the rent.

The reverse also happens. Where the lease says the rent includes snow removal and the landlord does not deliver it, the tenant can apply to the Director too. A tenant who is elderly, injured, travelling or simply never home is also a reason to think twice before handing them the shovel in the first place.

A winter checklist for Halifax landlords

• Tick one of the two boxes in section 16 of Form P on every lease, and never both.
• Spell out the scope under section 17: which areas, how soon after a snowfall stops, who supplies salt or sand and the shovel.
• Clear common areas yourself or contract them out, whatever the lease says about the unit.
• Keep the way out clear, from the door to the ground. By-law M-200 does not mention snow, but s.13(1) requires every dwelling to have "a safe, continuous and unobstructed passage from the interior of the dwelling to exterior grade level", and s.13(2) requires a fire escape used as a secondary means of egress to be kept "free from obstructions". A buried exit route is the situation those sections are about, even if neither says snow. Our egress window guide covers the windows.
• Watch the roofline for icicles over a walkway (S-300 s.5).
• Choose a contractor with some care, keep their contract and invoices, and check they do not push snow into the street (S-300 s.4(2)).
• Tell tenants about the overnight parking ban. HRM's ban runs every year from 15 December to 31 March, from 1 a.m. to 6 a.m., and is enforced only during declared weather events and ongoing clearing operations. A tenant parked on the street or hanging over the sidewalk can be ticketed or towed, and HRM notes that a vehicle interfering with snow clearing can be towed at any time under s.139 of the Motor Vehicle Act. Where the lease includes parking, say where.
• Tell your insurer who clears the snow, and ask whether the arrangement changes anything on your policy. Form P puts tenant insurance on the same list as snow removal, and a tenant's own policy is worth asking about at the same time.
• Keep a log: dates cleared, by whom, and photos after the bad storms. If anyone ever falls, the record of what was done that day is the evidence.

Where we fit

Snow is a good example of why the lease matters more than the Act for most of what goes wrong in a rental: the rule is whatever was written down at the start, and most of the cost comes from what was not. Preparing the lease, coordinating contractors and keeping the record are part of full-service management, and we do not mark up vendor invoices, so you pay the contractor's price and you see it. The whole fee schedule is published.

Sources

• Standard Form of Lease Regulations, N.S. Reg. 19/2025 (effective 30 April 2025), as amended to N.S. Reg. 120/2026 (effective 6 May 2026): Form P, sections 16, 17 and 20, and Schedule A.
• Residential Tenancies Act, R.S.N.S. 1989, c. 401, sections 8(1), 8(2), 8(2A), 9(1) (Statutory Conditions 1 to 4), 9B(1), 10(7B), 11, 12(1), 12(3), 12A(2) and 13, as consolidated to 3 October 2025.
• Occupiers' Liability Act, S.N.S. 1996, c. 27, as amended 2019, c. 9, sections 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9 and 12.
• Halifax Regional Municipality, By-law S-300, Respecting Streets, sections 3, 4, 5 and 6, and By-law M-200, Standards for Residential Occupancies, sections 13(1) and 13(2).
• Halifax Regional Municipality, Winter operations: Common questions, Do your part and Overnight winter parking ban, retrieved 20 October 2026.

This guide describes the rules as published and is general information for Halifax and HRM landlords, not legal advice. After a fall, or where a policy or a claim is involved, speak to a lawyer and your insurer.