A winter service agreement decides who owes what when someone falls on your walkway. Most name a price, a property and a season, and leave out the two facts that matter later: what sends the contractor out, and when the clock on that visit starts. Settle those in writing now and the rest of the season runs off a document instead of a phone call.
This is for landlords and small operators who hire a plow rather than employ a crew. Seven terms, one log, and a clause that most Ontario agreements are missing.
1. The trigger depth, in centimetres
Write the accumulation that sends the contractor out, as a number, measured on site. Without one, "as needed" means the contractor's judgment on a morning when every property on their route wants attention first. Then add a second trigger for freezing rain and for a melt and refreeze, which lay down ice at no accumulation. A depth-only trigger buys you nothing on the day the walkway glazes over.
2. The moment the clock starts
Response times are written in hours, and hours run from an event. Name the event: the end of the snowfall, the moment accumulation reaches the trigger, or the time of your call. Municipal bylaws tend to run from the end of the snowfall, so matching that language keeps you on one clock instead of two.
3. Scope, surface by surface
List the surfaces by name. Driveway, parking stalls, the walkway to every entrance, steps, landings, ramps, the path to the bin enclosure, and the municipal sidewalk if clearing it falls to you. An agreement that covers "the property" gets you a clear driveway and an untouched side entrance, and the side entrance is where people fall.
4. Ice control, priced separately from plowing
Moving snow and treating ice are two services with their own trigger and their own price. Decide the material, who stores it, who refills the supply, and whether a treatment visit can happen on its own when there is no snow to move. Decide who keeps the grit container by each entrance filled, because in most agreements that job belongs to nobody.
5. Where the snow goes
Piles take parking stalls, block sightlines at the exit, and drain back across a walkway when the afternoon warms up. Mark the pile locations on the agreement, keep them off the uphill side of any walkway, and set the point at which snow gets hauled off site instead of stacked higher.
6. Insurance, and who is holding the shovel
Ask for proof of liability coverage and confirm it names snow and ice operations. Then ask whether the work is subcontracted, because the crew that arrives in January may not be the company on your agreement, and your record has to name who was on site. The same checks apply to any trade, and we covered them in the contractor verification playbook.
7. The notice-forwarding clause
This is the term almost nobody writes, and in Ontario it decides whether you hear about a fall in time to act.
Since January 29, 2021, section 6.1 of Ontario's Occupiers' Liability Act bars an action for personal injury caused by snow or ice unless written notice of the claim, giving the date, time and location, is personally served or sent by registered mail within 60 days of the injury. The notice can go to the occupier or to the independent contractor hired to remove snow or ice during that period, and notice to either one lifts the 60-day bar.
A valid notice can land on your contractor's desk and never reach you. The Act puts a forwarding duty on both sides: an occupier who receives a notice has to send a copy to any contractor engaged for that period, and a contractor who receives one has to send a copy to the occupier who hired them. Put the same duty in your agreement with a deadline and a named address, so forwarding becomes a contract term you can enforce, not an obligation you hope someone remembers.
The bar has exceptions. It does not apply where the injured person died of the injury, and a judge can excuse a missing or incomplete notice where there is a reasonable excuse and no prejudice to the defence. A letter can arrive well after the season ends, about a morning you have no memory of. That is what the log is for.
The log line that does the work
A service log is the only evidence a visit happened, and a log built after a claim arrives is worth close to nothing. Require one line per visit, submitted within a set number of days:
- Date, arrival time and departure time
- Which surfaces were cleared and which were treated
- The material used and roughly how much
- Measured accumulation, or the condition that triggered the visit
- Temperature at arrival
- The name of the person or crew on site
Ask for dated photos of the cleared surfaces, filed where you can find them by property and date. Keep the logs for the length of your province's limitation period, not for the season.
Your own municipal deadline
Bylaw deadlines are local, and they are shorter than most owners assume. In Toronto, private property including driveways, parking spaces, steps, ramps and landings has to be cleared of snow and ice within 24 hours after the snowfall ends. The abutting municipal sidewalk has to be cleared within 12 hours of the end of the snowfall, although the City takes on sidewalk clearing once accumulation reaches 2 centimetres, which leaves the smaller snowfalls with the owner. The City of Toronto sets out both on its page for clearing snow and ice from your property.
Look up the deadline for each municipality you hold property in, write the number into the agreement, and set the contractor's response window inside it. A contract promising service in 24 hours in a city that demands clearing in 12 is a liability you signed for.
Do this before the first snowfall
- Walk each site and write down every surface that needs clearing, entrance by entrance.
- Look up the bylaw deadline for each municipality, then set response windows inside it.
- Add the trigger depth, the ice trigger and the named clock start to the agreement.
- Add the notice-forwarding clause, with a deadline and an address.
- Agree the log fields and where the logs get sent, then check that the first one arrives.
None of this takes an afternoon, and all of it is easier now than in the week after a fall.