Snow on your property: how to avoid conflicts with neighbors and fines from the state. It’s risky to throw snow on the road

This winter there has been an unusually large amount of snow, and many summer residents have had to remember what it’s like to clear the way to the gate. At the same time, an important question arose: is it necessary to remove snow on your personal property? Is there a fine for excess, considering snow cover to be an analogue of garbage or weeds?

Lawyer answers Sergey Kolomiytsev:

— The decision about whether to remove snow on one’s property remains at the discretion of each summer resident, and if he decides that he should let it remain, then no punishment will follow. However, if he starts cleaning, certain problems may arise.

For example, when cleaning:

• Throwing snow onto a neighbor’s property.
• Dumping snow onto a public SNT object, such as a road, which often happens.

In the first case, if a neighbor discovers such behavior, he can file a claim for damages, and the amount of compensation will depend on the court’s decision.

In the second case, you first need to find out to what height the summer resident raised the snowdrift on the road. This issue is governed by local laws, and these regulations may vary significantly from location to location. For example, in the Moscow region, such issues are regulated by the law “On the regulation of additional issues in the field of improvement …”, and according to Article 63 of this law, the maximum permissible height of snowdrifts is 80 cm.

If a summer resident adds snow to a public road above this height, he can be fined according to this law in the amount of 5 to 10 thousand rubles, reports aif.ru.