Snow and ice at a Skokie rental: who has to clear what, and who answers for a fall

Ask who has to shovel at a Skokie apartment and the honest first answer is that Illinois law is built around what nobody has to do. The state’s natural-accumulation rule, which the Supreme Court reaffirmed in 2010, means an owner is generally not liable for snow and ice that simply fell and stayed. Around that rule sit the texts that actually decide a renter’s winter: a 1979 statute that protects owners, lessors and occupants who clear the abutting sidewalk from being sued for doing it badly, and the Cook County Residential Tenant and Landlord Ordinance, which lists “common areas in a fit and habitable condition” among the habitability standards a landlord must meet — without ever saying the word snow. This page puts each text next to its source, says where the village’s own rules would apply, and admits where they could not be read.

What this page is: the rules that decide who clears snow and ice at a Skokie rental — the shared stairs, the walks, the sidewalk — and what the courts say when someone falls, each linked to its official source. It is not legal advice. Where a rule could not be read from a primary source, the page says so instead of guessing. When it matters, read the linked source or use the free legal help on our tenant rights page.

The natural-accumulation rule: no general duty to remove naturally fallen snow and ice, or to warn of it — Krywin v. Chicago Transit Authority, 238 Ill. 2d 215 (2010)

The Illinois Supreme Court stated the rule in 2010 in a case about a train platform: “We hold that the natural accumulation rule applies in this case and that the CTA had no duty to remove natural accumulations of snow and ice from its train platform, and no duty to warn of such accumulations.” The opinion restates the general rule as the appellate court had put it — “a property owner does not have a duty to remove natural accumulations of snow, ice, or water from its property” — and applies it even against a common carrier’s heightened duty to give passengers a safe place to alight. For a renter the consequence is blunt: a fall on snow that fell and stayed is, by itself, usually not a claim against the landlord. The word doing the work is “natural.” The parties in Krywin fought over whether the ice was a natural accumulation at all, and that is where snow-and-ice cases in Illinois are argued: an accumulation the property caused or aggravated — a downspout discharging onto a walk, a plowed pile that melts and refreezes across the only path — is a different question from the one the rule answers. Whether a given patch of ice was natural is a fact question; this page cannot tell you the answer for your stairs. Source: Krywin v. Chicago Transit Authority, 238 Ill. 2d 215 (Ill. Sup. Ct., July 15, 2010) — Caselaw Access Project copy

Shoveling the sidewalk does not create liability: the Snow and Ice Removal Act — 745 ILCS 75

The natural-accumulation rule had a perverse side effect: an owner who left the sidewalk alone was safe, while one who shovelled it and left a slick spot could be sued for the result. The General Assembly answered with a two-section statute. Section 1 declares the policy — “owners and others residing in residential units be encouraged to clean the sidewalks abutting their residences of snow and ice” — and Section 2 supplies the shield: “Any owner, lessor, occupant or other person in charge of any residential property, or any agent of or other person engaged by any such party, who removes or attempts to remove snow or ice from sidewalks abutting the property shall not be liable for any personal injuries allegedly caused by the snowy or icy condition of the sidewalk resulting from his or her acts or omissions unless the alleged misconduct was willful or wanton.” Three things follow for a Skokie renter. The Act names “lessor” and “occupant” together, so a tenant who shovels the sidewalk in front of a two-flat has the same protection as the landlord. It covers the sidewalk abutting the property — the public walk — not the building’s own stairs, walks and parking. And it is a shield, not a duty: nothing in it requires anyone to shovel. Source: 745 ILCS 75 — Snow and Ice Removal Act, Secs. 1–2 (ilga.gov)

The Cook County RTLO: common areas “in a fit and habitable condition” — Sec. 42-805(C)(3)(y), and the ordinance never says “snow”

The Residential Tenant and Landlord Ordinance, which covers nearly every Skokie rental, gives a tenant “the right to a dwelling that materially complies with habitability” and lists what habitability includes. Two items on the list reach the winter outside the door. Item (c): “Appropriate number, width, construction, location, and accessibility of exits, stairway, fire escape or directional signs with structural integrity, in sound condition, and maintained in good repair.” Item (y): “A dwelling unit and common areas in a fit and habitable condition and in compliance with all applicable local, municipal, state, and federal regulations and guidance.” The ordinance does not mention snow, ice, shovelling or sidewalks anywhere in its text, so whether an iced-over shared stair is a habitability failure is an argument from “accessibility of exits” and “fit and habitable,” not a rule that names the situation. The ordinance also points at the local code: where a municipality has adopted a building code, landlord and tenant “may use that municipal code as reference for determining habitability standards” (42-805(C)(2)) — which in Skokie is the village’s property-maintenance code, enforced by its Property Standards Division. If the argument succeeds, the remedy route is the RTLO’s ordinary one — written notice, the 14-day clock, then repair-and-deduct, rent reduction or termination under Sec. 42-806 — laid out with today’s dollar figures on our repairs page. Source: Cook County RTLO — codified ordinance text (PDF, June 2026), Sec. 42-805(C)

What a lease can do: assign the shovelling, but not waive the habitability right — RTLO Sec. 42-804(A) and (F)(1)

The RTLO lets the parties “include in a rental agreement any terms and conditions that are not prohibited by this Article and other rules of law” (42-804(A)), so a Skokie lease may lawfully make the tenant responsible for clearing the sidewalk, a private walk or an assigned parking space, and many do — especially in two- and three-flats where the owner lives elsewhere. What the lease cannot do is take away the habitability right itself: among the ordinance’s prohibited provisions is any clause by which a party “agrees to waive or to forego rights or remedies under this Article, Illinois state law, or federal law” (42-804(F)(1)). Read the two together and a snow clause is enforceable as a division of chores but not as a release: if the shared exit is impassable and that makes the building fail the habitability list, the tenant’s RTLO remedies survive the clause. Between the parties, though, a tenant who took on the sidewalk and never touched it should expect the landlord to point at the lease — and, as the section above explains, the Act protects whoever does shovel it, not whoever was supposed to. Source: Cook County RTLO — codified ordinance text (PDF, June 2026), Sec. 42-804

The village’s own sidewalk and snow rules: not readable from a primary source today

Illinois home-rule municipalities set their own sidewalk-clearing requirements, deadlines and fines by ordinance, and the property-maintenance code the RTLO points to is a village document. Skokie’s could not be read for this page: every host that publishes the village code (Municode, American Legal Publishing, eCode360) answers automated requests with a block page, skokie.org itself refuses the connection, and the Internet Archive rate-limited the attempt. Rather than quote a rule from memory, this page states only what the state and the county have written. For the village requirement — whether the owner or the occupant must clear the public walk, and by when — the Village of Skokie is the only authoritative source; ask, and read your lease for whether the landlord has passed the duty on. The state shield in 745 ILCS 75 applies to whoever ends up doing it. Source: 745 ILCS 75 — Snow and Ice Removal Act (ilga.gov) · Cook County RTLO — codified ordinance text (PDF, June 2026)

What this page does not know

Honest caveat: no public dataset counts winter falls, code complaints or snow-clearing disputes by city or ZIP, so there are no local figures on this page — only the rules and their sources. The Village of Skokie's own snow ordinances could not be read from a source we could fetch (every host of the village code, and skokie.org itself, refuses automated requests), so this page states only state and county law and says where the village rule would apply. Court opinions are quoted from the Caselaw Access Project's copies of the official reporters. Where the page says a rule is silent, that is a statement about the text we read, not a promise that no other rule exists.

Where a snow problem usually goes next

An unshoveled shared exit is a code condition, so the route to getting it fixed — the inspection request, the written notice, and the remedies at today's rents — is on the repairs page; the other winter question, who pays when the heat or the gas goes off, is on the utilities page; if the answer to your complaint is a notice, a raise, or a suit, the retaliation page covers the law that protects the complaint itself; and a renters-insurance policy's liability coverage is the part that matters if a guest falls on a walk the lease made yours — the renters-insurance page covers what a lease may demand. If the building's economics are the real problem, each Skokie ZIP's current average (60077, 60076) says what moving costs instead.

Page last updated September 30, 2026 · rent index data through August 2026.