Liability
Slip-and-Fall Liability on Commercial Property
When someone falls on a commercial lot, the liability lands on whoever controls the premises. The defence is documentation: a contract naming every surface, trigger conditions that actually fire, and a written record of each visit. This page covers what to check in the agreement you hold.
What belongs in a scope, why the records matter, and how to read the one you already have.
What a Scope Names
The Four Things Every Agreement Should Settle
Surfaces
Every drive aisle, walk, landing, ramp and approach listed by name. A blanket all areas clause is an argument waiting to happen.
Triggers
Plowing on a stated depth. De-icing on pavement temperature and moisture. Two different conditions, because they are two different hazards.
Order and Timing
Which site and which surface comes first, set by opening time and foot traffic, written down instead of decided at four in the morning.
Records
A per-visit log delivered as part of the service. This is the clause most agreements are missing and the one that matters after a fall.
Why It Exists
The Claim Arrives Long After the Ice Is Gone
A slip-and-fall claim does not show up the next morning. It shows up months later, sometimes more than a year, in a letter naming the property. By then nobody remembers what the lot looked like on the day in question. The only thing that can answer for the property is what was written down at the time.
Occupiers' liability puts a duty of reasonable care on whoever controls the premises. That standard gets measured against evidence. Was there a contract? Did it cover the surface where the fall happened? Was it triggered, and did somebody attend? A proper scope plus visit logs answers all four in a page. Without them, the property is arguing from memory against a plaintiff with a photograph.
Where Existing Contracts Fall Short
When we read a contract a property already has, the same holes turn up. Sidewalks lumped into a general clause or left out entirely, even though that is where the pedestrian is. De-icing written as if it follows plowing, so it never triggers on a clear cold morning after a wet evening. No stated service order, which means priority is whatever the driver decides. And almost always, no requirement that anyone record the visit.
None of that is exotic. It is what happens when a snow agreement is written as a price sheet rather than as part of a risk file. If you want a read on yours, send it with the property address and we will tell you what it does not cover.
Structure and Cost
Seasonal, Per Visit, or a Blend
Seasonal pricing buys budget certainty. You know the number in September and it does not move, whether the winter turns out mild or brutal, and there is never a conversation about whether a marginal morning counted. For a strata or a managed portfolio that has to set a budget and defend it, that predictability is often worth more than the arithmetic.
Per-visit pricing tracks the actual winter. In a soft season it costs less. In a hard one it costs more, and it puts every borderline morning into a judgment call the contractor makes and the property pays for. It suits sites with low exposure and owners comfortable carrying the variance.
A blend is common on the Lower Mainland properties and usually fits the climate best: seasonal de-icing, since that runs on a predictable rhythm here, plus per-push plowing for the events that may or may not come. It matches the way winter actually arrives on this coast, where the ice is reliable and the snow is not. Our seasonal and per-visit contracts page walks through how each structure prices out.
What Drives the Number
Square metres of pavement and linear metres of sidewalk set the base. After that: how many priority surfaces there are and how early they have to be done, whether snow can be stacked on site or has to be hauled off, how the lot drains and whether it refreezes, obstacles like wheel stops and islands and bollards that slow a plow to a crawl, and where the property sits on an existing route.
That last factor moves price more than people expect. A site the truck already passes costs less to serve than an equivalent site twenty minutes off the run, because the run is the expensive part. Per-visit minimums start around $400 regardless, since any attendance means a machine, an operator, product and the drive.
Getting a Scope Written
Call (604) 800-9612 with the property address and we will book a site walk. You get a written scope covering the surfaces, the triggers, the service order, the snow storage plan and the rate. Read it against whatever you have now. If ours does not cover more, do not sign it.
Good to Know
Contracts FAQ
Seasonal contract or per visit?
Both exist. A seasonal rate gives you a fixed budget line and no argument about whether a given morning qualified. Per-visit costs less in a mild winter and more in a hard one, and it puts the judgment call about marginal mornings back on the contractor.
What should a trigger clause say?
It should name conditions, not adjectives. A depth threshold for plowing, and separately a pavement-temperature and moisture condition for de-icing. If de-icing only triggers off snowfall depth, the contract will skip the mornings that produce most falls.
Are sidewalks included by default?
In a lot of contracts, no, and that is the gap worth checking first. Ours name sidewalk runs, entry approaches, stair landings and accessible-stall routes individually, because those are the surfaces people actually fall on.
What records do I get?
A per-visit log: date, time, areas serviced, product applied. It goes in your file as the season runs rather than being reconstructed afterward, because a reconstructed log is worth very little.
What is the minimum charge?
Per-visit minimums start around $400. Small sites still take a truck, an operator, product and travel, so there is a floor under what any visit can cost.