As others have said, it would have been best had someone informed her that you and your housemates would be absent during reading week. Not sure if you did or not, but if you did not, that is all the testimony she would need in a legal dispute.

Not an expert on the subject. Not sure of what your lease agreements were. However, it would be unreasonable of her to expect you/your housemates to shovel while being away.

Originally Posted by collinbf

Well you definitely need to convince your room mates to pay it.

Not an easy task. I tried to convince them to sort out their garbage properly a few times, and all it resulted in were my signs being incinerated with less garbage sorting than normal (hence our now epic unsorted pile of garbage the city collectors won't take).

They already partially incinerated the notice our landlord left in the kitchen :/.

Originally Posted by Ownaginatios

Not an easy task. I tried to convince them to sort out their garbage properly a few times, and all it resulted in were my signs being incinerated with less garbage sorting than normal (hence our now epic unsorted pile of garbage the city collectors won't take).

They already partially incinerated the notice our landlord left in the kitchen :/.

Hahaha sounds like a lolzy house. Give your land lord 28.58 (200/7) and just explain the situation. He can deal with the other room mates. He'll definitely look more favourable on you, especially in the future when he takes your room mates to small claims court for the cleaning costs of the huge pile of garbage.

Originally Posted by Ownaginatios

Not an easy task. I tried to convince them to sort out their garbage properly a few times, and all it resulted in were my signs being incinerated with less garbage sorting than normal (hence our now epic unsorted pile of garbage the city collectors won't take).

They already partially incinerated the notice our landlord left in the kitchen :/.

I am in a similar pickle. My shitty roommates never bring the garbage cans into the house and I already do other chores in the house. We got multiple notes from the MSU saying that we have to bring the garbage cans in but still no one does. I just warned my roommates that if we do get fined I will not pay a penny from it.

I know people are going to probably flip out at this comment but if you signed the lease agreeing to shovelling the snow, it would have been yours and your housemates responsibility to let the landlord know that no one would be around incase of any snow fall. Also, if everyone was around during the first big snow fall, it's the house's fault for getting the first warning.
Sorry, gotta side with the landlord on this one

Originally Posted by collinbf

Hahaha sounds like a lolzy house. Give your land lord 28.58 (200/7) and just explain the situation. He can deal with the other room mates. He'll definitely look more favourable on you, especially in the future when he takes your room mates to small claims court for the cleaning costs of the huge pile of garbage.

This is what I was going to say. Pay the landlord your share of the $200. Then, it is her responsibility to make sure they pay the fine. Once you pay your share, you're good.

A good(as in skillful, good at their job) landlord is going to wipe the floor with you. You might be able to manipulate your way out of it if she is a not so good landlord. Only you can know that through your interactions with her.

Can you often get away without paying rent or utilities? do your roommates have huge debts owed to the landlord? Do you often manipulate your landlord and generally mess with her? if you answered yes to these types of questions you MIGHT be able to get away with it. But even for a garbage landlord this is a pretty easy win.

Pay your portion of the debt to the landlord, keep records of it, inform your room mates you paid because you are all clearly at fault, and let them fight for the sake of fighting.

Also doesn't matter whether or not the city gave you a "24 hour warning." The bylaw itself states that you have to clear snow within 24 hours!

Originally Posted by sjager

Also doesn't matter whether or not the city gave you a "24 hour warning." The bylaw itself states that you have to clear snow within 24 hours!

That's true, you got off the hook pretty easy there with all the warnings. I'm pretty sure they can fine you after 24 hours.

Originally Posted by alh24

I'm pretty sure they can fine you after 24 hours.

Hence the $200...

Originally Posted by Ownaginatios

Hence the $200...

Ah, I was under the impression you meant the previous Friday, and therefore that you had a week's warning before they did something about it. My housemate is an idiot and always says "the ____day before" when referring to the one before the last, and I've become accustomed to how stupid that logic is. Sorry about that.

If i remember it correctly, it goes like this.
If your lease was individual, separated from other housemates, go ahead and pay your part, less than $30, get you outta trouble.
Make sure to keep a record signed by the landlord stating that you have not further responsbility to this fine.
If you signed a group lease with 6 other ppl..well, you're stuck in this even if you paid and others didn't.

dont pay it for the lulz, see what happens. and post results, should be epic thread op. pce.

do you live on bowman st.? cuz nobody on the street shovels their damn sidewalks!

just curious lol. makes me mad walking to school.

Originally Posted by Ownaginatios

It's already split between all of us; problem is - they have the same stance I do, but they're much more serious about not paying than I am.

:/

Aside from this, the ungodly pile of unsorted garbage my idiot house mates have neglected, the rich smell of marijuana constantly in the air and my landlord coming over for pretty much the first time ever since September.... I don't see the future looking too good :p

Wow, it sounds just like my situation. 'Cept my housemates can't speak English and smoke cigarettes instead of weed...

And we didn't get fined yet. Just a notice from MSU to keep our front lawn cleaner/shovel snow. o_O;


edit/

Hope I didn't doublepost. Internet dying (as usual) at home.