An owner who doesn’t clean up the snow from the pavement in front of their house can pay up to 50 thousand HUF fine. But this has never yet happened in Debrecen because those who monitor public areas give warnings first. They penalize owners only if they are still unwilling to clean their portion of the pavement.
A walking stick doesn’t make walking on icy, snowy pavement easy. It is the owners who have to clean the pavements in front of private dwellings and share houses.
Cleaning the pavements lest anyone should fall down is a must and it’s not a new thing that the snow in front of a house should be swept away.
When the weather is nice, the sun helps with vanishing the snow and melting the ice. But there are lots of pavements on which the ice formed a hard, slippery layer due to the negligence of the owner.
Failing to clean the snow up is an infringement. Therefore, public areas are checked several times a week, even at the weekend. Those who do this work seek owners who are responsible for snowy areas in person or by letter. They might give a fine on sight or report the infringement.
“On-the-spot fines are not imposed because there are lots of estates in which nobody lives, therefore nobody takes care about the snow and the ice. So we report infringement in every case.”- explainedGyula Tozser to the local DTV.
This winter, 110 cases of infringement were reported but no one had to pay because experience shows that after being warned, owners usually clean the pavements.
