Southampton Village, NY Property Maintenance: Snow & Sidewalk Clearing (2026)

Article III of Chapter 95 of the Southampton Village Code, Maintenance of Sidewalks, was adopted 6-3-1938. Section 95-10 covers any owner or occupant of any house or other building and every owner or person entitled to the possession of any vacant lot. Each must keep all sidewalks of concrete, cement, brick or other hard surface lying in front of the house, building or lot free from obstruction from snow and ice. The same sentence requires the sidewalk to be free from dirt, filth, hedges or other obstruction or encumbrance, so the duty reaches more than winter weather.

The section also controls where the snow goes. In removing snow or ice, no person can put it in the gutter or drain of the street or in any manner fill up or obstruct a gutter or drain. Section 95-10 prints no number of hours after a storm, so the code states the duty without a clock.

The Village backs the duty with a cleanup remedy. In every case in which snow or ice is not removed, or when the gutter is obstructed, it is the duty of the Street Commissioner to remove the same immediately. The expense of that removal becomes a lien upon the land, enforced in a manner provided by law, so an unpaid cleanup bill attaches to the property.

Liability to the Village is limited by Article VII. Section 95-25 bars a civil action against the Village of Southampton for damages or injuries caused by the existence of snow or ice on a sidewalk unless written notice of the condition, specifying the place and location, was actually given to the Village Clerk before the occurrence, and the Village failed within a reasonable time to have the snow or ice removed. The Village Clerk keeps an indexed public record of those notices and preserves each original for five years under §§ 95-26 and 95-27.