There is no license to check, the hold-harmless paragraph in the contract has been void since 2016, and the protection that is left is a certificate of insurance. The Illinois rules that actually apply to a Barrington snow contract, section by section.
Ordinances are summarized from each village’s published code and pages, with the section cited. A summary is not the code; confirm any rule with the village before relying on it. Work arranged through this site is done by an independent operator, not by this site.
The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation licenses architects, engineers, home inspectors, landscape architects and roofing contractors. It does not license snow removal, landscaping or general contractors. Cook County’s contractor registration is a building-permit mechanism for unincorporated areas and names no snow trade; Lake County has nothing comparable. The Village of Barrington registers contractors only for permitted building work and requires a business registration only of a business based in the village. No license, permit or registration for plow operators was found in any of the seven villages.
So there is nothing to verify, and any site or operator claiming to be “licensed” for snow removal in Illinois is describing something that does not exist. What can be verified is insurance, which is where the rest of this page goes. Google’s own Local Services Ads program lists state licensing for snow removal as “where applicable by local law” — which in Illinois is nowhere.
Illinois’ Snow Removal Service Liability Limitation Act (815 ILCS 675) applies to any contract for “plowing, shoveling, or other removal of snow,” de-icing, or services incidental to them. Section 10 declares “against public policy and void” any clause that requires the contractor to indemnify, hold harmless or defend the property owner for the owner’s own acts or omissions — and, symmetrically, any clause that requires the owner to do the same for the contractor’s. Six enumerated forms, in both directions. It applies to contracts made on or after the Act’s effective date, August 25, 2016; it does not apply to contracts with public bodies or utilities, and it “does not apply to an insurance policy, a surety bond, or workers’ compensation.”
What that means for a Barrington homeowner or an association board: the paragraph in a snow contract that says the contractor will hold you harmless is unenforceable, and so is the one that says you will hold the contractor harmless. Each party is liable for its own negligence. The protection that remains is a certificate of insurance and, if you want it, additional-insured status on the contractor’s policy — both expressly untouched by the Act. Ask for the certificate in October.
A trade blog claims that “in 2016 Illinois passed a bill that protects snow contractors from liability and lawsuits related to slip and fall cases.” That is a misreading of this Act, which voids indemnity clauses and creates no immunity. Illinois has no certified-applicator liability shield of the kind New Hampshire and Colorado have.
Illinois’ common-law rule, restated in the pattern jury instruction on falls on snow and ice, is that a landowner “has no duty to remove natural accumulations of snow, ice, or melt water.” Liability arises from an unnatural accumulation the owner caused — a design or drainage defect, a sloped surface that sends meltwater across a walk, or negligently conducted plowing that leaves ruts and ridges — or from a duty the owner took on by contract or lease. Refreezing and rutted traffic are still natural. And salting or shoveling a natural accumulation does not transform it into an unnatural one; an appellate court has called those “desirable actions in this part of the country.” A contractor with no contract has no duty to remove snow at all; once it undertakes the work, its duty is non-negligent removal.
On top of that sits the Snow and Ice Removal Act (745 ILCS 75), which immunizes residential owners — and “any agent of or other person engaged by” them — from ordinary-negligence claims for clearing the abutting public sidewalk, unless the conduct was willful or wanton. The Illinois Supreme Court in Murphy-Hylton (2016) held it covers removal efforts and not ice from a premises defect; the appellate court in Hussey (2018) held “sidewalk” means the public walk at the lot line and not the driveway or private paths. The sidewalk rules page.
The Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission says it plainly: “If you have one employee, even a part-time employee, you must obtain workers’ compensation insurance.” A sole proprietor with no employees may go without. The penalty for an employer that does not comply is $500 for each day of non-compliance with a minimum of $10,000, a possible work-stop order, personal liability for corporate officers, and a Class 4 felony for a knowing failure. A homeowner who hires an independent plow contractor is not that contractor’s employer under the Act — the household threshold is domestic workers at forty or more hours a week for thirteen or more weeks — but an uninsured worker hurt on the property can still bring an ordinary negligence claim against the homeowner’s liability policy. That is the second reason to ask for the certificate.
Illinois taxes tangible property, not services. The Department of Revenue’s guidance for labor-only services is that they carry no Retailers’ Occupation or Use Tax; the contractor pays Use Tax on the salt it buys and spreads. A bag of ice melt sold to the customer is a retail sale. Ohio, by contrast, taxes mechanized snow removal above $5,000 a year; Michigan does not.
The Home Repair and Remodeling Act requires a written contract for home repair over $1,000 — but it defines home repair as fixing, altering or improving real property and expressly excludes landscaping. Snow plowing is maintenance, not repair, and falls outside it. Get a written contract anyway; the reason is the 2016 Act above, not this one.
Under the Consumer Fraud Act, a sale of $25 or more made by a seller physically present at your home can be canceled by notice within three full business days. A seasonal contract byline-x with a canvasser at the door carries that right; one closed by phone or online does not. “Merchandise” under the Act includes services, so snow contracts are covered by its deception provisions either way.
The Illinois Vehicle Code caps vehicle width at 8 feet 6 inches, then exempts “snow and ice removal equipment that is no more than 12 feet in width, if the equipment displays flags at least 18 inches square mounted on the driver’s side of the snow plow” and carries an illuminated rotating, oscillating or flashing amber light on the cab visible at 500 feet (625 ILCS 5/15-102(c)). The Code’s separate amber-light section lists narrower circumstances for private equipment, and the two do not line up neatly; a contractor running an oversize blade should read both rather than rely on a summary. Lot snow, as noted above, cannot be deposited on the highway under 605 ILCS 5/9-130, and residential driveway snow is governed by the village. Where the snow may go.
Statute text on this page was read from a published mirror of the Illinois Compiled Statutes and paraphrased; section numbers are given so the text can be checked at ilga.gov.
Knowing the rule and having the time at 5 a.m. to meet it are different things. Describe the property and get a season price from an operator who already works in that village.
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