If a neighbor's tree falls

Parent Cafe
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<p>I thought I’d throw this out to the insurance/real estate/lawyer types here and get a few opinions.</p>

<p>We had a major wind/rain event Tuesday evening, lost power and had a significant portion of a neighbor’s Norway maple break, fall across our driveway and cause damage to 2 vehicles.</p>

<p>Son’s '90 Dodge Dakota with aftermarket Leer camper style aluminum cap took the brunt of it; one gaping 12x24 inch puncture, one 8x6, and a couple of 3 inch diameter smaller holes. Cap is a loss, replacement cost about $800.</p>

<p>Wife’s '05 Scion XB has a small hood dent, and numerous minor scratches caused by the light branches being blown/sliding on the paint, a couple of paint chips. My guess for a new hood and a buff job is $1500 tops, have not yet gotten an estimate.</p>

<p>No glass/body damage on either vehicle other than as described. Cars were driveable as soon as the brush was cleared.</p>

<p>I called neighbor and left a message with his service (he’s an electrical contractor), and he called me 7am the next morning, had a crew of his guys there by 7:30 who cleared the small stuff, and dragged it onto his property. I chain sawed the rest into fireplace lengths and kept it for burning. </p>

<p>All in all, he was extremely responsive. He still owns, but no longer lives on the property. It’s an incoming producing rental. When he and his wife were living there, our relationship was cordial, neighborly, but we never socialized.</p>

<p>There are a number of Norway maples on his side of the line, all overgrown, branches significantly over my line, many with forked trunks and heavy lean in our direction. A portion of our house is in direct line of fire should one or more fall and hit the structure, or the cars again. </p>

<p>I had planned to have my arborist clear the line at my expense and was just waiting for him to schedule it. </p>

<p>The trees are of no value/beauty, although they do provide some shade and screening. All but one or two are nothing more than scrub that has been untended for years.</p>

<p>My questions:
Is he responsible legally responsible for the damage to my vehicles? I just want the cap replaced, the dent fixed and the car buffed, let’s say $2500 tops.</p>

<p>Do I have a legal recourse to urge him to remove the trees on the line that are potential future hazards to house and vehicles? I’m willing to pay up to the amount my arborist was going to charge me for pruning everything back to the line. I was ready to spend that anyway.</p>

<p>Thoughts?</p>

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<p>My understanding is that damage caused by trees falling FROM your neighbor onto your property is covered by the neighbor’s insurance. At least that is what we were told would happen if our trees fell on our neighbor’s house (which is why we had our trees on the border cut down). </p>

<p>Further…you cannot force your neighbor to cut down trees on his property. At least that is what we were told. However, we were also told that if there were trees hanging OVER our property, we could have them trimmed back so that they hung only over the neighbor’s lot (at our expense…not theirs). Of course, you could discuss the potential for future damage and maybe the neighbor will decide to cut the trees down!!</p>

<p>Re: your damage to the cars now…I’d contact your insurance company and tell them what happened. They may TELL you to contact the neighbor’s insurance co.</p>

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<p>The real estate section of the local paper has a Q&A section on various real-estate related legal issues, and trees come up quite often:</p>

<p>[Living</a> | Neighbor tries to avoid paying for deck damage | Seattle Times Newspaper](<a href=“Page not found | The Seattle Times”>Neighbor tries to avoid paying for deck damage | The Seattle Times)</p>

<p>[Living</a> | Liability for tree damage depends on tree’s health | Seattle Times Newspaper](<a href=“Page not found | The Seattle Times”>Liability for tree damage depends on tree's health | The Seattle Times)</p>

<p>[Living</a> | Stately trees can be friends or foes | Seattle Times Newspaper](<a href=“Page not found | The Seattle Times”>Stately trees can be friends or foes | The Seattle Times)</p>

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<p>It varies from state to state but your car insurance policy covers your car so call them right away. It may be that they have a subrogation claim against the neighbor. Hopefully you have comprehensive insurance. Unless there is some negligence involved - he knew the tree was rotten, it may be considered an Act of God and his homeowner’s insurance would not cover it.</p>

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<p>A few years ago my car was damaged a neighbor’s tree while I was parked under it on the street. This was not during a storm, it was just a rotten limb that fell in the 30 minutes I was parked. Their insurance covered the damage.</p>

<p>Given the crazy storms that have been rolling across this country, your neighbors might just see reason in trimming back and/or removing some of these trees.</p>

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<p>Bunsen, thanks. Those links were helpful.</p>

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<p>

Probably not, unless the trees were not being maintained. If they were dead then maybe… if they were healthy then probably not. You said it was a storm so that’s considered an ‘act of God’ and not something he can be held responsible for. Your own insurance would cover the claim. </p>

<p>

No, not really. If the base of the tree is on his property then generally he had control over it, even if some branches go over the property line. There may be some local ordinances that are different, but generally the tree (and control of it) belongs to the person with the base of the tree on their property.</p>

<p>

Considering he doesn’t live there anymore then I don’t see why he would care… but you do need his permission.</p>

<p>A few years back we had a big tree branch hit a neighbors house during an ice storm, causing some minor damage to the outside of the house. The insurance company said that even though the tree was ‘ours’ and was on our property the claim was still to be filed under the neighbors insurance since this was considered an ‘act of God’ and thus not something we could be held accountable for.</p>

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<p>Again, state law varies, but you may not need permission to trim the trees back to your property line. You can’t do it and send him the bill though. Anything that hangs over on your side is yours.</p>

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<p>During Hurricane Isabel in Virginia a few years back , a neighbor’s large tree fell onto our garage, also many large limbs fell in our backyard. We were responsible for cleanup(tree that fell was on our friend’s property who also happened to be a lawyer). We had to clean it up and file with our own insurer. I would guess it depends on the circumstances but I would check with your insurer. I would imagine they should be able to answer a general question without having to actually file a claim on initial contact.</p>

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<p>cartera, I had spoken to him earlier in the year about trimming back to the line, and he was agreeable. I got permission to have workers on his property, taking the branches back to the trunk rather than lopping along the property line. (My arborist is a perfectionist and wants to trim in the best interest of leaving healthy trees.) I told the neighbor I was going to give him a courtesy call when I had a firm date as to when the work would be done. I didn’t expect him to pay for the line trimming.</p>

<p>I’m just looking for the most efficient way to avoid having to deal with possible damage down the road. I’m willing to fork over what I was going to pay for line trimming and help absorb some of the costs of taking the worthless scrub, bad forks and leaners down now to avoid another issue down the road.</p>

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<p>I assumed you wouldn’t do anything without permission - the good neighbor rule can trump the law. Just to be safe, I wouldn’t mention anything to your insurance company about how you were concerned about the trees. I defended insurance companies for a number of years and some do look for any reason to deny a claim. I don’t think most are unreasonable but they don’t need to know that you planned to clean up the trees.</p>

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<p>Thanks all. I’ll let you know the outcome.</p>

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<p>rocketman08’s experience was the same as ours when our tree fell over neighbor’s yard. Our insurance wouldn’t cover and said it would be their insurance that would cover. We offered to pay neighbors out of our own pocket, they said no thanks…</p>

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<p>Definitely start with your car insurance – “tree falling on car” should be covered by comprehensive, less whatever your deductible is.</p>

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<p>XD was anyone else expecting to open this and see “…and no one’s around to hear it, does it make a sound?”</p>