The clearing and gritting duty in Hesse — what owners and landlords need to know

As soon as the first snow settles or the roads freeze over during the night, owners, landlords and managing agents all face the same question: who actually has to clear and grit — and what happens if nobody does? An overview of the basics of the clearing and gritting duty and the way it is usually handled in Hesse.

Who is responsible in the first place?

Under § 10 of the Hessisches Straßengesetz (HStrG, the Hesse road act), the duty to clean and clear footpaths originally lies with the local authority. Subsection 5, however, allows local authorities to transfer that duty to property owners by local by-law — and practically every municipality in Hesse makes use of it. Owners then have to keep the footpath along their property in a condition that is safe to walk on. Where a property is let, that duty can in turn be passed on to the tenants in the tenancy agreement. This does not release the landlord entirely, though: they remain under a duty to check that clearing really does take place reliably (a supervisory duty, Überwachungspflicht). If an accident happens despite the duty having been transferred, liability under § 823 BGB can still arise — more on that in our article Liability for black-ice accidents without winter maintenance.

At what times does clearing have to happen?

The exact times are set by each local authority in its own by-law (§ 10 Abs. 5 HStrG leaves the detail to the municipalities) — there is no single rule covering the whole of Hesse. In many places the usual practice is a window of roughly 7:00 to 20:00 on working days; on Sundays and public holidays the duty mostly starts a little later (often from 9:00) — but what counts is always the by-law of the particular municipality. If snow keeps falling or ice forms again during the day, clearing once in the morning is not enough — you have to go out and clear again as often as the conditions require.

What exactly does “cleared and gritted” mean?

• A sufficiently wide strip of the footpath must be free and safe to walk along — depending on the local by-law, usually somewhere between 0.80 and 1.50 metres.
• Where it is icy, grit has to be spread as well — many municipalities restrict pure de-icing salt for environmental reasons and require abrasive materials such as sand or grit, with salt often allowed only in extremely icy conditions.
• Access to building entrances, bin stores and letterboxes is part of the clearing duty too.

What happens if nobody clears?

If somebody slips on an uncleared footpath and is injured, the person under the duty to keep the way safe — owner, tenant or the service provider engaged — can be pursued for damages and for compensation for pain and suffering. For details of how that liability works in practice, and how complete documentation protects you against it, see our article Liability for black-ice accidents without winter maintenance.

How Zamsa helps

We take on winter maintenance for residential and commercial properties throughout the Groß-Gerau district and the adjoining Rhine-Main region — including photographic documentation of every call-out in the customer portal, so that you can always prove that clearing took place if it is ever questioned.