Anyine Have a Tree Fall on a Neighbor's Property?

[JPhillips]

I came home today to a large tree laying across a neighbor's fence and a note from the neighbor. From everything I've read I don't have any liability through my insurance. Is that right? How do I tell that to the neighbor without causing a fight?

If you've dealt with this, I'd love some advice.

[MCK]

You're right. Unless the neighbor can prove that you knew that the tree was damaged (rotting) and in danger of falling. But if it just fell from a storm or an act of nature, it's not your fault.

We had this happen a couple of years ago, neighbor's tree fell in to our yard during a storm and landed on the pool. We called our homeowners to find out who was responsible and they said we were responsible for the part of the tree laying on our property.

Really not much you can do since your homeowners is not responsible. Hopefully you are friends with this neighbor and they will understand.

Luckily, our neighbor helped remove some of the tree that was on our property.

[Lathum]

Keep in mind insurance laws vary greatly state to state. The best thing to do is call your insurance company.

[JonInMiddleGA]

That's basically my experience with it, and in my case years ago the tree took out about 10%-15% of his house (took off a side porch/sunroom as neatly as if you'd done it with a meat cleaver, just sheered it right off). No responsibility for me nor my insurance company, act of nature took down a +/- 200 year old tree.

You call your insurer, he calls his insurer, unless there's some different applicable law in your state they'll most likely tell you both pretty much the same thing.

[JPhillips]

Originally Posted by Lathum

Keep in mind insurance laws vary greatly state to state. The best thing to do is call your insurance company.

I called tonight and I'll talk to my agent tomorrow, but the national office thinks it's the liability of the neighbor.

[NobodyHere]

My parents had their neighbor's tree (actually I think it was two) fall on their house. Apparently the owners inherited the property and decided to cut down the good trees on the lot (it was fairly heavily wooded) and sell them for lumber. Apparently the good trees were shielding the bad trees or something.

But anyways my parents called their own insurance company. That insurance company sued the other guy's insurance company and my parents got the repairs paid for.

[JPhillips]

This tree was seemingly perfectly healthy, it just came down in a storm. I expect my agent to clarify that it's not my liability, but it just doesn't seem right to take no responsibility for the damage caused by one of my trees.

[Lathum]

Not knowing your financial situation if it was me and the neighbors were being reasonable I would pay for the repairs. We put up a new fence recently and tore the old one down. It ran all along the side of our house and led up to the neighbors property. They had put in a gate for their own yard. We could have saved ourselves a few hundred by cutting it off at the back of our house, but that would have left them with this useless gate. We decided the goodwill would go a long way with our neighbors and we were right.

[panerd]

Originally Posted by Lathum

Not knowing your financial situation if it was me and the neighbors were being reasonable I would pay for the repairs. We put up a new fence recently and tore the old one down. It ran all along the side of our house and led up to the neighbors property. They had put in a gate for their own yard. We could have saved ourselves a few hundred by cutting it off at the back of our house, but that would have left them with this useless gate. We decided the goodwill would go a long way with our neighbors and we were right.

I would agree with Lathum. I also have no idea if you are talking $300-$500 or thousands but you might want to tell them their homeowners policy is responsible but you will pay their deductible.

Let me also offer up what not to do (aka Panerd's wife with a similar situation with a tree and an expensive mailbox). Don't get into a big argument over who is responsible and then end up paying for it anyways. You not only eat the cost but have no goodwill either. Might as well at least get one of the two!

[Butter]

We had a tree come down on a fence with a neighbor who was living on a fixed income. So it was basically if we still wanted a fence between us, we had to pay for it.

Which we did without complaint, and had all the remnants of the tree removed. Wasn't ideal, but we did what we had to do.

Turns out less than 2 years later, she was in a home and her idiot son was running a meth lab and dealing from the house. Flash forward to 3 months ago, now that very house is razed, so this house (which I don't live in anymore but still own) is next to an empty lot now.

[Blackadar]

Yeah, it's going to be covered by their insurance. The neighborly thing to do is to offer to split their deductible since it was your tree.

Speaking of which, I just paid $1400 to have my trees thinned out and specifically to have a branch removed that was hanging over my neighbor's house.

[Suburban Rhythm]

Just to reiterate what everyone else has said

After a storm, neighbor's tree fell onto our fence, into our yard. It was all handled through our homeowner's insurance - fence repair, tree removal, etc.

[Toddzilla]

sue God

[Danny]

Sue Lebron James

[JPhillips]

Good meeting with the neighbor today. She called her insurance and got the same message I did.