My tree fell on neighbor's lawn.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:legally you owe him nothing but if i were him, i would be pissed too. manage your trees OP. that you should do.

+1
Legally you're not on the hook so far but twice in two years is a bit much.
If I were the neighbor I'd threaten to sue you for negligence since the previous tree falling should have tipped you off. And of you don't pay, I'd take you to court.

You can take some one to court but you will not win. Trees topple because of unusual weather patterns and climate change.

OP, it is wonderful if you can cut and remove the tree. You do not have to do anything else. At maximum, sprinkle some grass seeds in the lawn to make it green and beautiful.

Exactly. We all pay homeowners insurance, and the law regarding which homeowner's insurance pays is settled law. If a tree fell on my yard, my insurance company would be responsible. I would not expect my neighbors - who would not be able to claim it on their insurance - to pay. Unless, as a PP said, there was an obvious problem wit the tree and I had put them on notice about the problem through whatever means are required by law. We had a similar situation a few years back (tree fell during a storm) and the neighbor asked my husband to pay for half of their fence repair. He agreed; I wouldn't have. And before anyone says we don't manage our trees, we do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:legally you owe him nothing but if i were him, i would be pissed too. manage your trees OP. that you should do.

+1
Legally you're not on the hook so far but twice in two years is a bit much.
If I were the neighbor I'd threaten to sue you for negligence since the previous tree falling should have tipped you off. And of you don't pay, I'd take you to court.

It's pretty unneighborly to just shrug and declare it's their problem when 2 of your trees have caused damage to his property. It goes against his insurance and they've likely raised his rates due to the previous instance and will likely again for this. If he changes insurance companies it would show up that he made claims against his home owners and they would adjust the rate. It's none of your business why his deductible is so high and why would it even matter if it were lower? You should help with the deductible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can you afford the $2800? If you can, I would take the moral decision here. We had a tree that was healthy but overhung our downhill neighbor's house. If it had fallen, it clearly would have killed them all. It was causing a lot of anxiety during storms etc. We agreed to pay half to take it down. It was the ethical thing to do.

So you asked your neighbor to help pay take down the dangerous tree on your property because you were concerned for their safety. How nice of you?

[Anonymous]

Op you are something else.

[Anonymous]

I’d offer to pay 50% as that seems like the right thing to do, even if law says it’s his problem. It’s what I’d hope my neighbor would do if the roles were reversed.

[Anonymous]

You have to send a registered letter to the owner of the tree before the liability becomes theirs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We just had a bad storm and one of my trees fell on my neighbors lawn. Two years ago one fell on his brand new deck and it had to be replaced. My insurance company told me I was not responsible but his insurance company would pay, and they did. He was not happy though because he said he had to pay the deductible. I assumed he had a deductible similar to mine which is $500. Today I found out his deductible is $2800! He is really upset and said when his tree fell on his neighbor's yard, which is on the other side of him they split the cost. My son-in-law offered to help cut the tree with his chainsaw and store the wood on our property, but the neighbor is not happy. Was this a fair offer? He wants us to give him money.

Wow! You didn't even offer to pay the deductible? And his insurance will go up now because of the claims. You might not be legally bound but morally here, you are in the wrong. I wouldn't want to be your neighbor. Your trees causing this much destruction and you wipe you hands clean of it all. Wow.

His insurance may have already gone up because of the prior claim, and that may be why he has a deductible this high.

OP, you should get the tree removed at your expense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We just had a bad storm and one of my trees fell on my neighbors lawn. Two years ago one fell on his brand new deck and it had to be replaced. My insurance company told me I was not responsible but his insurance company would pay, and they did. He was not happy though because he said he had to pay the deductible. I assumed he had a deductible similar to mine which is $500. Today I found out his deductible is $2800! He is really upset and said when his tree fell on his neighbor's yard, which is on the other side of him they split the cost. My son-in-law offered to help cut the tree with his chainsaw and store the wood on our property, but the neighbor is not happy. Was this a fair offer? He wants us to give him money.

Wow! You didn't even offer to pay the deductible? And his insurance will go up now because of the claims. You might not be legally bound but morally here, you are in the wrong. I wouldn't want to be your neighbor. Your trees causing this much destruction and you wipe you hands clean of it all. Wow.

His insurance may have already gone up because of the prior claim, and that may be why he has a deductible this high.

OP, you should get the tree removed at your expense.

+1

[Anonymous]

Healthy trees fall down in bad weather all the time. I don’t get how people think there was evidence of negligence here.

[Anonymous]

Aren’t you worried someone will be hurt or killed by your trees?!

[Anonymous]

This is the OP. The tree was not due to not taking care of it. We had a big wind storm and the tree was torn up from the roots. It was not due to neglect. I have offered to pay several hundred dollars towards the bill, which my neighbor has agreed to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is the OP. The tree was not due to not taking care of it. We had a big wind storm and the tree was torn up from the roots. It was not due to neglect. I have offered to pay several hundred dollars towards the bill, which my neighbor has agreed to.

Why bother with several hundred. Our deductible is $5k.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Healthy trees fall down in bad weather all the time. I don’t get how people think there was evidence of negligence here.

Agree. All of these posts are nuts. Or not local?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is the OP. The tree was not due to not taking care of it. We had a big wind storm and the tree was torn up from the roots. It was not due to neglect. I have offered to pay several hundred dollars towards the bill, which my neighbor has agreed to.

Why bother with several hundred. Our deductible is $5k.

That's on you. Not your neighbor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Healthy trees fall down in bad weather all the time. I don’t get how people think there was evidence of negligence here.

Agree. All of these posts are nuts. Or not local?

If it happens TWICE, this is a person not doing proper maintenance for their trees. We have an arborist out every few years to check and trim ours. How many guesses OP has ever done this? Certainly should have after the first time! If I were OP's neighbor, I'd be furious if she didn't offer to pay the deductible the second time.