As we head into fall here in the Denver metro area, I've been revisiting snow removal clauses before lease renewal season kicks in. Denver and several surrounding cities have ordinances requiring property owners to get sidewalks cleared within a set window after snowfall — but a lot of leases I've seen just hand that responsibility straight to the tenant.

That mismatch creates some genuinely tricky situations:

If the lease puts shoveling on the tenant but they don't do it and someone slips, who actually ends up eating the liability — landlord or tenant?

For single-family rentals, is it more common to require the tenant to handle it themselves, or to contract out plow/shovel service and build the cost into rent?

For multi-unit properties, does it usually just get folded into a shared common-area budget instead?

I've seen landlords go every direction on this — strict lease language with penalty clauses for non-compliance, hiring a service and passing the cost through, or just eating it as a line item themselves for the liability peace of mind.

How do you all structure this in your leases, especially if you're in a snow-belt market? And has anyone had an actual liability scare because a tenant didn't shovel in time?