An icy yard in the morning is not weather you can do nothing about. It is a duty that is either named in advance, or it belongs to nobody.
My own yard is icy in the morning. What do I do?
Grit the path and the steps before you leave, if the grit is ready by the door and the surface is flat. A short house path is yours to do. Do not leave for work hoping the sun will deal with the ice by noon. The first steps of the morning are when the fall happens. If there is no grit ready in the store, the next rain repeats the same morning. Keep the bin full in autumn, not after the first ice.
What about a housing company?
Then you do not wait for whichever resident has time before work. Ice is handled on an agreed round, by a named person. Without a round, the yard stays unsafe until someone notices. Occasional gritting is not winter maintenance. It is hope, and it ends when that resident is away or ill. A car park, ramps and a rescue route are not one shovel. The duty sits with the housing company, even if a maintenance firm does the work.
Is ploughing enough?
No. A ploughed surface freezes, and packed slush turns to ice overnight. Gritting is a separate step, not a side effect of ploughing. The agreement has to say whether the work covers ice and slush or only loose snow. Ploughing alone leaves the ice exactly where people walk. If no grit was spread, the plough has not made the yard safe.
Who is responsible if someone falls?
It is not settled afterwards by who happened to be home. The owner or the housing company is responsible. A contractor does what the agreement says, and only if the agreement exists before the icy morning. The board should agree the person, the snow limit and the number beforehand, not after an injury. A vague line that says it will be handled if needed is not an agreement. It is a dispute after someone has already fallen.
When should you call instead of waiting for morning?
When the area is large, the slope is steep, the rescue route is blocked, or freezing rain fell overnight. A call at night is better than the first person out the door discovering the ice. Property maintenance and winter maintenance exist so ice is not left to one resident. If there is no agreement, one emergency visit does not replace a season. The next snowfall comes before the next board meeting.
What should you not do?
Do not climb the roof to look at the ice, and do not leave gritting until the air warms up later. The roof, the eaves and icicles over a path are a different job from grit in the yard. Morning is when the fall happens. Do not park the grit bin on the path for the summer either, so that in winter nobody can find it. Ready grit and a named number matter more than a promise that someone will look at the yard.