What an HOA should expect from a snow removal contractor

What should an HOA snow contract cover?

Every surface the association is responsible for, named. SIMA-10-2025, the snow industry's procurement standard, asks that the scope of work define site boundaries, service areas and the services provided in each, and that it note issues that affect neighbors, such as shared parking with different owners or adjacent public land. For a community that usually means the internal roads and cul-de-sacs, guest and shared parking, common sidewalks, mailbox clusters, any clubhouse or amenity entrances, and the decision on whether individual driveways and walks to front doors are included.

That last decision causes more friction than any other. Some associations cover driveways for every unit; others cover only common areas and leave each owner to arrange their own. Either works if residents know which it is before December. Your governing documents decide what the association maintains; the contract should match them exactly.

Who on the board should talk to the contractor?

One person, with a named backup. SIMA-10 calls this service control: the contract should name who has authority to start or continue service, add services outside the agreed scope, and stop service before or during an event. It also asks the owner side to provide a communication plan with current phone numbers and email addresses for complaints, scope changes, incidents and damage reports.

For an HOA that matters more than for a business, because a board has many voices. If five residents each call the crew with a different request, nobody knows which instructions count. A single contact who gathers complaints and passes on decisions protects the board as much as the contractor.

In what order will areas be cleared?

The order should be written down, and safety access should lead it. SIMA-10 lists priority areas as including site ingress and egress for emergency responders, sidewalks, building entrances and exits, accessible parking stalls and delivery ramps. In a subdivision the first priority is almost always the road from the public road to the farthest home, because an ambulance or fire engine that cannot get up it matters more than any walkway being perfect.

After the main road, a typical sequence is the side streets and cul-de-sacs, then shared parking, then walks and mailbox clusters, then cleanup passes. Residents at the end of the route will always be cleared last; telling them where they sit in the order heads off most of the calls. Our HOA snow removal page describes how we sequence community accounts.

Will the county plow any of our roads?

Only if the county maintains them, and many subdivision roads it does not. Ravalli County's road department says it runs nine plow routes covering over 550 miles of county-maintained road, clears major collectors first, and notes that there are many miles of platted county roads it does not maintain, along with roads that are state or privately maintained. Missoula County says its crews begin plowing outside city limits on weekdays between 5 and 6 a.m. after a storm, clear priority 1 routes first (school and city bus routes and roads with hills or curves), and that maintenance outside regular work hours is not guaranteed.

For an HOA the practical points are: confirm which of your roads are county-maintained, expect the public road at your entrance to be plowed on the county's schedule rather than yours, and expect a berm across your entrance when it is. Our guide to who plows a private road in Montana covers the responsibility question, and our private road snow plowing page describes that service.

What about cars parked on the street or in the lot?

They are the most common reason a road or lot is not cleared edge to edge. SIMA-10 lists parked vehicles among the obstacles a site assessment should identify. A crew will plow around cars, which leaves a ridge that freezes and narrows the road for the rest of the winter. A community can set a winter parking rule, such as keeping streets clear overnight after snowfall or moving cars on a set day, and enforce it through the association. That is a decision for the board under its own rules; the contractor can only tell you what it does to the work.

What should residents expect at the end of their driveway?

If the association clears driveways, residents should expect them cleared in route order, at the agreed trigger, with snow placed where the plan says. If it does not, residents should expect the road plow to leave a windrow across the driveway entrance, because that is how a road is cleared. A road crew cannot avoid it without stopping at every drive. Saying this plainly in a pre-winter notice to owners saves a lot of angry mornings.

Where driveways are outside the association's scope, owners need their own arrangement, and it helps to tell them that well before the first storm. Our residential snow removal page explains how a household arrangement works, including the berm at the drive entrance, which arrives whenever the road plow passes and which no contractor controls. A second home or rental with nobody on site deserves particular attention, because nobody is there to notice that a drive has closed.

Where will the snow go in a subdivision?

Into storage areas agreed before winter, not wherever the blade ends. The site map in SIMA-10 should show approved stacking areas. In a community those are usually common-area edges, the inside of cul-de-sacs, and wide shoulders, chosen so piles do not bury mailboxes, block sightlines at intersections, sit on top of storm inlets, or drain back across a walk and refreeze. The City of Missoula tells residents not to cover fire hydrants with snow; that is good practice everywhere.

Late in a heavy winter, storage runs out. The contract should say whether relocating or hauling snow is included or a separate service, and who authorizes it. Our guide on where to pile snow covers placement in more detail.

Who clears public sidewalks along the community?

Inside Missoula city limits, the City requires property owners to clear sidewalks adjacent to their property of snow and ice within 24 hours following a snowfall, and says snow must not be put into the street, bike lanes or parking lanes. For an HOA that borders a city sidewalk, the board needs to decide whether that frontage is the association's job or each owner's, and put it in the contract if the association is covering it. Our guide to Missoula sidewalk snow rules sets out the City's process.

How fast should a contractor respond?

As fast as the agreed trigger and route allow, which is not the same as the moment the first resident wakes up. A contractor serving a whole route cannot be at every property at 6 a.m. The contract should state a trigger and a completion expectation, and the board should know roughly where the community sits in the route. Our guides to trigger depth and realistic snow service response times explain how those are set.

What records should the board receive?

At least a record of each visit with the date, times, what was cleared and treated, and conditions. SIMA-10 lists the contents of a per-event report, including start and end times, site conditions at start and finish, weather, services, equipment and materials. Ask for them on a schedule, not only after a complaint. They answer most resident questions in a sentence, and they matter if anyone is hurt. Our guide to snow service records explains what to look for.

What should the board do before the first storm?

Walk the community with the contractor while the ground is bare. SIMA-10 makes a preseason site inspection the responsibility of all contracted parties. Mark hydrants, curbs, culvert ends, road edges, irrigation heads and drain grates; note broken curbs and potholes the association should fix; agree stacking areas; and look up at the trees. Limbs over roads sit much lower carrying wet snow, and dead or weak trees near roads and homes are far easier to deal with now. Our guides to winter tree care and snow load and our hazard tree removal service cover that side.

Then send owners a short notice: what the association clears, in what order, the parking rule, who to contact, and what the contractor does not do. It costs nothing and prevents most of the winter's complaints. Our property manager winter checklist has a fuller list.

This guide is part of our Montana Winter Property Guide. HOA and managed-property accounts sit within our snow and 24-hour storm services. Call HJ Property Care & Tree Service at (406) 215-7319 or request a snow proposal and we will walk the site with you before the first storm.

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