Winter Falls at Businesses and Apartments: When Ohio Law Does and Does Not Hold the Owner Responsible

Published February 12, 2026 · Injury Law Basics

Every February our phones ring with the same story. Someone stepped out of a car in a grocery store lot, or out the door of an apartment building, and their feet went out from under them on ice. Now there is a broken wrist or ankle, a surgery, and weeks off work, and the property owner's insurer is saying, "It's Ohio. It snows."

Sometimes the insurer is right, and sometimes it is not. Under Ohio law, the answer turns on why the ice was there and what the owner was legally required to do about it.

The starting point: Ohio's no-duty winter rule

Ohio has long followed what lawyers call the "no-duty winter rule." A business owner ordinarily owes no duty to customers to remove natural accumulations of ice and snow, or to warn them about it. The reasoning is that everyone who lives here knows winter is slippery and is expected to take care.

The Second District Court of Appeals, which covers Dayton, applied that rule last fall in Arnett v. Archdiocese of Cincinnati, 2025-Ohio-4679. A father carrying his five-year-old daughter to a father-daughter dance at St. Charles Borromeo in Kettering slipped on black ice in the parking lot and suffered a compound leg fracture that required a rod and screws. The court held the parish owed no duty because the ice was a natural accumulation. It also held that piles of snow left by a plowing contractor, and runoff from those piles that refreezes, are still "natural." We discussed that case in more detail in our post on the no-duty winter rule.

That is a hard rule for an injured person. But it has two exceptions, and they are where real cases are won.

Exception 1: Unnatural accumulations

An owner who is actively negligent in causing or permitting an unnatural accumulation of ice or snow can be held responsible. As the Arnett court put it, quoting earlier cases, "[u]nnatural accumulations are man-made or man-caused." Low temperatures, wind, and drifting snow are natural. Ice formed because of something the owner did, or a defect the owner allowed to exist, may not be.

Examples worth investigating include:

• a gutter or downspout that is broken, disconnected, or aimed so that it dumps water across a walkway, where it freezes;
• a leaking pipe, broken drain, or faulty sprinkler line that sends water onto pavement;
• a building or parking lot designed or graded so that water collects and freezes where people must walk.

Whether a particular condition counts as "unnatural" is fact-specific, and courts do not always agree. That is exactly why the evidence of where the water came from is so important.

Exception 2: The owner's superior knowledge

The second exception applies when the owner knew, or should have known, that the snow or ice created a danger substantially greater than what a visitor would expect from ordinary winter conditions. The classic example from Ohio case law is snow covering a known deep hole in a parking lot. If the owner knew about a hidden hazard that you could not have appreciated, the owner can be responsible for failing to address it.

Apartments and rental homes: a different set of duties

Tenants often assume their landlord must keep the walkways clear. The law is more complicated, and you should know where the lines are.

Natural ice and snow. In LaCourse v. Fleitz, 28 Ohio St.3d 209 (1986), the Supreme Court of Ohio held that a landlord has no general duty to clear natural accumulations of ice and snow from common areas. The Court rejected the argument that R.C. 5321.04(A)(3), which requires landlords to "[k]eep all common areas of the premises in a safe and sanitary condition," creates that duty.

The lease can change that. The LaCourse Court noted that it was dealing with a lease that imposed no snow-removal duty on the landlord. Many leases, especially at larger complexes, do say who handles snow and ice, and many landlords hire contractors to do it. Read your lease, and keep a copy.

The landlord's duty to repair is a separate, stronger duty. R.C. 5321.04(A) also requires a landlord to comply with building, housing, health, and safety codes; to make all repairs needed to keep the premises fit and habitable; and to keep fixtures and systems the landlord supplies in good and safe working order. In Robinson v. Bates, 112 Ohio St.3d 17, 2006-Ohio-6362, the Supreme Court held that a landlord's violation of the code-compliance or repair duties is negligence per se, meaning the violation itself establishes the landlord's breach of duty. The Court also held that the "open and obvious" defense, which often defeats ordinary fall cases, does not dissolve the statutory duty to repair. The tenant still must prove the violation caused the injury and must prove damages.

Here is why that matters in winter. In Base-Smith v. Lautrec, Ltd., 2014-Ohio-349, a resident of a mobile-home community fell on ice near the community mailboxes. The pavilion's downspout was disconnected from the drain pipe, and the pipe itself was broken and full of debris. The Twelfth District held that her ordinary negligence claim failed because the ice was open and obvious, but her claim based on the owner's statutory repair duties, under a parallel statute for mobile-home parks, had to go to a jury.

None of this guarantees a recovery. But when ice forms because of a broken gutter, a failed drain, or a code violation the landlord was obligated to correct, the analysis is very different from a fall on natural snow in a store parking lot.

The evidence that decides winter cases

Winter fall cases are won or lost on evidence that literally melts. Within hours or days:

• Photograph the ice and where it came from. Take wide shots and close-ups. Look up: photograph gutters, downspouts, overhangs, and drains above and near the spot.
• Photograph your footwear and the conditions elsewhere on the property, which can show the spot where you fell was different.
• Get names of anyone who saw the fall or the condition, including employees.
• Report the fall in writing to the manager or landlord, and keep a copy.
• Save your lease, maintenance requests, and texts or emails complaining about leaks, gutters, or drainage.
• Note the weather. Historical weather records can show when the last precipitation fell and whether temperatures were cycling above and below freezing.

Our guide chapters on the first 72 hours and gathering evidence while it still exists explain how to preserve photos, video, and witness information before they disappear. A business's surveillance video and a landlord's maintenance records should be requested in writing right away, before they are overwritten or discarded.

What this means for you

• A fall on purely natural ice at a business is usually difficult to win in Ohio. Do not let that discourage you from asking whether the ice was truly natural.
• Ice created by a defect the owner caused or ignored can change the result.
• Tenants have additional statutory protections tied to the landlord's duty to repair and to comply with codes, and the open-and-obvious defense does not erase them.
• The lease and the maintenance history matter. So do photos taken before the thaw.

Our premises liability page explains the broader rules for falls at stores, apartments, and other properties.