We read the sidewalk statute of every US state, verbatim, from official legislature sites wherever one exists. This table is the whole map: what each state's law actually says about who pays for sidewalk repair, with each row linking to our full guide where the statute is quoted and sourced. City ordinances add their own layer on top; those live in the complete city guide.
Quick orientation: "Owner pays" states put repair on the abutting owner with a notice-then-we-bill-you machine. "City duty" states write the obligation on the municipality. "Assessment" states fund sidewalks like public projects and split the bill. A surprising number of states wrote nothing at all, leaving everything to local ordinance.
| State | The rule | The detail that matters |
|---|---|---|
| Alabama | Owner pays | "Reasonable notice" set by ordinance, then a lien collected like taxes |
| Alaska | No sidewalk statute | Generic capital-improvement assessments only; your borough's ordinance decides |
| Arizona | Two-tier | Common-council towns: build on order; charter cities write their own rules |
| Arkansas | Owner pays | City contracts on default and adds a 6% penalty to the lien |
| California | Owner pays | S&H Code 5610: the fronting owner maintains |
| Colorado | Assessment | Sidewalks are exempt from the owner-petition veto most improvements need |
| Connecticut | Liability shift | Towns may hand snow/ice injury lawsuits to owners by ordinance |
| Delaware | Construction only | Front-footage assessment once, then the state DOT maintains forever |
| Florida | Assessment | Special assessments on "specially benefited property" |
| Georgia | Nearly silent | The street statutes never say "sidewalk"; city ordinances govern |
| Hawaii | No state statute | County codes govern; our Honolulu record documents the big one |
| Idaho | Owner pays | "Dangerous and unsafe" orders; 30 days to pay; the statute never says lien |
| Illinois | Owner pays | 30 days from the mailed notice, the most direct statute in the country |
| Indiana | Owner pays | Works-board resolution, 30-day window, then someone else's contractor |
| Iowa | City duty, flippable | The city's baseline duty until a certified letter moves it to you |
| Kansas | Owner pays | 5 days' notice (none at all in third-class cities), 30 days to pay |
| Kentucky | No statute | Sidewalk sections repealed; pure city home rule |
| Louisiana | Assessment | Total cost assessable, even against property outside city limits |
| Maine | Town duty | Towns keep ways safe; claims gated on written notice of the defect |
| Maryland | Cleaning only | The state grant stops at snow, ice, and obstructions |
| Massachusetts | Town duty | $5,000 damages cap and a 30-day injury notice |
| Michigan | City duty | The municipality "shall maintain the sidewalk in reasonable repair" |
| Minnesota | City toolbox | Repair power and clearing duties ride different statutory clauses |
| Mississippi | No owner duty | Municipal power plus special assessment; nothing personal to you |
| Missouri | Owner pays | Councils may order build, rebuild, or repair by ordinance |
| Montana | Owner pays | A lien on the lot or a personal lawsuit, the city's choice |
| Nebraska | Owner pays + liability | Omaha's statute fuses repair duty with injury liability; 5-day notice |
| Nevada | Assessment | "Sidewalk project" costs split by front-foot, zone, area, or any equitable basis |
| New Hampshire | City pays | Repairs "without further assessment to the abutting owner," by statute |
| New Jersey | Split by use | Commercial owners liable, residential owners not (case law) |
| New Mexico | Owner pays, sharpest | 15 days to start; 20 days after a final order, injury liability transfers to you |
| New York | No blanket mandate | Village and town regimes plus written-notice liability shields |
| North Carolina | City duty | A statutory duty to keep sidewalks in proper repair |
| North Dakota | Owner pays, gentlest terms | 20-year installment plans; two-thirds of owners can compel the city to build |
| Ohio | Owner pays (permissive) | Cities may require owners to keep walks in repair |
| Oklahoma | Owner pays, fastest | A 3-day emergency clock, then no-bid repair at your expense |
| Oregon | Districts | Sidewalk improvement districts; mechanics left to each city's charter |
| Pennsylvania | Owner pays | Boroughs may require construction and "safe and usable condition" |
| Rhode Island | 50/50 split | Owner and town split new-sidewalk cost exactly in half, via the tax bill |
| South Carolina | Owner-protective | Assessments capped at half the cost and need two-thirds owner consent |
| South Dakota | Owner pays + nuisance | A broken walk is a public nuisance; the owner is liable for injuries |
| Tennessee | Owner pays | At least two-thirds of cost by frontage; the benefit finding is conclusive |
| Texas | Enabling | Cities may assess the entire cost; a defective walk is a declarable nuisance |
| Utah | Cleaning only | The statute stops at litter, snow, ice, and obstructions |
| Vermont | Town power | Permissive only; the famous 20-day notice statute covers bridges, not sidewalks |
| Virginia | Permissive | "Localities may... repair sidewalks"; never an owner mandate |
| Washington | Owner pays, capped | A 50%-of-land-value cap, and zero when the city caused the damage |
| West Virginia | Owner or occupant pays | One of the few statutes that reaches tenants too |
| Wisconsin | Owner pays | 20-day notice, then a special charge on the tax roll |
| Wyoming | Owner-friendly clock | A 30-day window to build it yourself before the city's contractor does |
The patterns, in one paragraph each
The deadline league. Where a statute puts a clock on the owner: Oklahoma 3 days (emergency), Kansas and Nebraska 5, New Mexico 15 to start work, Wisconsin 20, Illinois, Indiana, and Wyoming 30. Everyone else runs on "reasonable time" defined by the notice or local ordinance, which means the notice in your hand is the only deadline that exists.
The city-duty club. Michigan, North Carolina, Iowa, and New Hampshire write the repair duty on the government, with New Hampshire's "without further assessment to the abutting owner" the bluntest sentence in any of the fifty.
The silent states. Kentucky, Virginia, Mississippi, Maryland, Utah, Georgia, Alaska, and Hawaii either never wrote an owner duty or never wrote a sidewalk statute at all. In these states, any "state law requires you to fix it" claim is wrong on its face; the authority, if it exists, is a local ordinance you are entitled to see cited.
Every guide linked above quotes its statutes verbatim with source URLs and access dates, per our methodology. Our full 88-city, 50-state analysis is in the data study.