BC Occupiers Liability Act & Slip Claims — Manager Playbook

Every winter, British Columbia's courts issue judgements against strata corporations, commercial landlords and property-management firms who "did snow removal" but could not produce a record of when, what product, at what quantity, and by whom. The most quoted case law — Waldick v. Malcolm, and its BC-court progeny — makes clear that hiring a snow contractor does not by itself discharge an occupier's duty. What discharges the duty is a defensible paper trail. PlowWow builds seasonal contracts across Metro Vancouver specifically around the paper trail an insurance defence requires. This playbook lays out the statute, the standard, and the exact documents property managers should be able to produce inside 15 minutes when their broker asks.

What the Occupiers Liability Act Actually Says

British Columbia's Occupiers Liability Act, R.S.B.C. 1996, c. 337, defines both who is an occupier and what duty they owe. The two sections that matter every winter:

• Section 1 — "occupier" means a person who is in physical possession of premises, OR who has responsibility for and control over the condition of premises, the activities conducted on those premises, or the persons allowed to enter those premises. Strata corporations, commercial landlords, property-management firms and even snow-removal contractors can all be occupiers simultaneously.
• Section 3(1) — an occupier of premises owes a duty to take that care that in all the circumstances of the case is reasonable to see that a person, and the person's property, on the premises will be reasonably safe in using the premises.

Two important consequences flow from this text:

• The duty is "reasonable care in the circumstances", not perfection. BC courts have repeatedly held that a slip-and-fall alone does not prove negligence. The occupier must have failed the reasonableness standard for the specific weather, timing and surface at issue.
• The duty does not transfer by contract. A strata that hires PlowWow is still an occupier. What the contract can do is delegate execution and generate the documentation that proves reasonableness was met.

The Reasonableness Standard — How BC Courts Actually Apply It

Reading the reported BC decisions from the last decade, the reasonableness standard consistently turns on the same seven factors:

• What was the weather doing? Was it snowing at the time of the fall, or had snow been on the ground for 12 hours?
• What was the surface? A curb cut versus a heated ramp versus a heritage brick apron are not the same risk profile.
• What was the time? A 6 a.m. slip on the first push of a storm is treated differently than a 4 p.m. slip after the crew has been on-site for 10 hours.
• What system did the occupier have in place? Any documented system beats a purely reactive one.
• Was the system followed on the day in question? This is where property managers most often lose.
• Was there a warning? Bilingual bilateral warning signs and cones during hazardous conditions are consistently persuasive to BC courts.
• Was the plaintiff wearing appropriate footwear? Contributory negligence is very much a factor.

The takeaway for property managers: your legal exposure is proportional to how well you can reconstruct the site's state at the moment of the fall.

The Paper Trail That Actually Defends a Claim

A defensible file for a winter slip claim in BC contains, at minimum, the following documents. If your current file has fewer than five of these, your defence is exposed:

• The signed seasonal snow contract, including scope, SLA and de-icer spec.
• The contractor's Certificate of Insurance (CGL minimum $5M) naming the strata / owner as additional insured, dated before the loss.
• GPS-verified route logs for the day of the incident, showing the specific walkway or apron was serviced.
• Application logs — product used, quantity applied, timestamp — for the site on the day of the loss.
• Environment Canada weather record for the day of the loss (available free from the ECCC historical portal).
• Site inspection log or property-manager walkthrough notes, if any.
• Photographs — post-incident photos of the surface, including any snow, ice or de-icer residue.
• Contractor's written safe-work procedure covering slope, ice, refreeze and glaze events.
• The claimant's statement including footwear, direction of travel and time of fall.

PlowWow provides items 3, 4 and part of item 8 as a standard deliverable of every seasonal contract, alongside monthly council- and manager-ready PDFs.

Common Property-Manager Mistakes We See in BC Case Files

Reading BC discovery transcripts from slip cases, the same manager-side mistakes recur:

• "We hired a snow guy" without a signed scope. If the scope is verbal, the contractor's insurer will decline to defend the strata, and the strata's own policy will absorb everything.
• No documentation of the specific walkway. A GPS log that puts the truck "in the neighbourhood" is not the same as a per-site application record.
• De-icer applied but not spec'd. If NaCl was spread on a heritage brick apron in violation of an unwritten but understood site rule, the strata is on both a maintenance-damage claim and a slip-negligence claim at the same time.
• Failure to react to freezing-rain warnings. BC courts treat freezing rain as a specific hazard requiring specific response, not "normal" winter operations.
• After-the-fact photos. Photos taken 48 hours later are of limited value. Photos taken within an hour, before conditions change, are the single most persuasive piece of physical evidence.
• Contractor changed mid-season. Transitional gaps in service — a snow contract that lapses November 30 and picks up December 5 — are the single most common date range for indefensible claims.

Municipal Bylaw Overlays — What Cities Add on Top

BC's provincial Act sets the baseline. Every Metro Vancouver municipality adds a bylaw obligation on top:

• City of Vancouver Street and Traffic By-law (No. 2849) — occupier must clear snow and ice from adjacent sidewalks by 10 a.m. the day after a snowfall.
• City of Burnaby Streets and Traffic Bylaw — similar 10 a.m. duty applies to property owners adjacent to a sidewalk.
• City of Richmond, Township of Langley, City of Surrey, City of Coquitlam — each has a variant of the "clear by 10 a.m." rule, with fines starting at approximately $100 and escalating for repeat offences.
• Strata corporations — the strata is treated as the occupier of adjacent sidewalks for bylaw purposes.

A slip on an uncleared adjacent public sidewalk exposes the strata twice: once under the Occupiers Liability Act, and once under the municipal bylaw. Both are handled by having a documented pre-10 a.m. clearing SLA in the seasonal contract.

The 15-Minute File Test

Every property manager and strata council should be able, at any moment during the winter, to answer the following in under 15 minutes for any building in their portfolio:

• Who is the snow contractor and what is the SLA?
• Where is the current signed contract stored?
• Where is the current COI, and what is its expiry date?
• When were the last five snow events, and what was the GPS-logged clear time for each site?
• What de-icer was applied, at what rate, on the last event?
• What is the escalation phone number to the contractor's after-hours dispatch?

If any of these takes more than 15 minutes, the property is exposed. PlowWow provides a shared monthly report that answers all six questions without requiring a phone call.

How PlowWow Structures Documentation for Insurance Defence

Every PlowWow seasonal contract is built around the file that a strata's broker or a commercial landlord's insurer will demand in the first 72 hours after a claim:

• Signed contract with full scope, SLA and product spec on file day one.
• COI issued in the strata / owner's name and delivered within 48 hours of signing.
• GPS-logged routes stored for a minimum of two full winter seasons.
• Per-site application records stored with the route log.
• Monthly PDF report delivered by the fifth of each month.
• Escalation contact available 24 hours during the November 1 – March 31 window.
• Named account manager who signs off on the file and appears on the report footer.

For a review of your current contract, a scope gap analysis, or a fresh seasonal quote for the 2026–27 winter, book a free consultation with PlowWow or view service coverage across Metro Vancouver.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does the Occupiers Liability Act apply to my private townhouse driveway? Yes, but the duty is proportional to the invitees you allow. A private driveway with occasional visitors is judged differently than a shared strata drive lane.

If I hire a snow contractor, am I still legally responsible? Yes. Contracting for snow removal delegates execution, not the duty. The occupier remains the occupier.

How long should I retain snow-service records? The BC limitation period for occupiers-liability claims is generally two years from the date of loss. Best practice is to retain records for a minimum of three full winter seasons.

Do warning signs on icy walkways help my defence? Yes. BC courts consistently treat visible warning signage as evidence of reasonable care, particularly when combined with active clearing and de-icing records.

What insurance limit should a Metro Vancouver strata require from its snow contractor? $5 million Commercial General Liability is the current market minimum for townhouse and low-rise strata. Larger complexes and commercial mixed-use sites should require $10 million.

This article summarizes the Occupiers Liability Act and Metro Vancouver municipal bylaws for general information only. It is not legal advice. Strata councils and commercial landlords facing an active claim should consult a British Columbia lawyer.