I had a slightly different situation - I live in a very hilly area. My home is on the "down" side of the street. The owner of the then vacant lot across the street cleared ALL vegetation on his lot.
A heavy rain came and the street, as well as my front yard and other neighbors were covered with mud. The city came and cleaned everything. This was done at the expense of the across the street lot owner.
I then had my attorney write a letter to the lot owner across the street putting him on notice that he would be responsible for any future damage to my property and home.
He then sold and the new owner corrected all problems.
If you are on good terms with the neighbor talk to him and tell him you or your attorney are gong to write him a letter
-registered - just for your own protection. If not on good terms, just do it.

Bought a new house in July 1999. September 1999 my neighbors tree fell on my house due to Hurricane Floyd. Called my insurance company, they came out and paid us to have a new roof put on and have the tree cut down and removed. No questions about who is to blame. Never had to get my neighbor involved at all. P.S. He had another tree right next to that one and felt that it might also come down in the future, so he paid for that one to come down.

My husband, an attorney, looked into a similar matter for my inlaws. My inlaws' neighbors complained about the needles from the pine trees on my inlaws' property blowing into their pool and causing problems with their pool filter. They wanted my inlaws to pay for repairs to the pool equipment. (Nice try!)

My husband determined that they are responsible for proper landscape maintainence to prevent damage from falling trees, but not for the pine needles that blow on the wind.

Any branches that are on hanging over your property are yours to cut as you wish. Out of courtesy tell the neighbor you intend to remove the branches and you might explian why.

It was my understanding that if my tree falls into your yard, I pay or my insurance company.

And if all this is not confusing enough the neighbors tree may not be the neighbors tree. I once lived in a place where the neighbors tree belonged to the city.

And I called the city and they said that the large branch which had broken off in a snowstorm and was hanging over my drive was indeed their responsability but they would not do anything until their person decided it was a hazard.

Hi, my neighbors huge tree fell and the top of it crushed our fence and is now partially on our yard. The main part of the tree is still on their yard. Before the tree fell is was very healthy and a good distance from my yard. It came down after a rather violent storm. Could any one advise me as to who would be responsible for the part on my yard and my fence? Thanks for any help....

You and/or your homeowners insurance is responsible for the damage to your home and fence, and for the cleanup of your yard.

However, when I had this happen to my yard the neighbor had the people cleaning up their yard also clean up my yard. I would like to think they were just being neighborly, but to be truthful they just didn't know that they didn't have to have our yard cleaned up.

My insurance paid for the damage to my house.

If a neighbors tree falls on your home its YOUR insurance co that pays for it. UNLESS the neighbor KNOWS that the tree was dead and needed to be removed BEFORE it fell on your property. If that's the case then there is a liability issue. It's not fair is it?
I'm a licensed insurance agent by the way.

Bobbie77

It's a good idea to review your homeowner's insurance policy with your agent to make sure you are adequately covered. If you hire someone to repair damages to your home and to remove the tree and this person is not a licensed contractor who has Worker's Comp and liability insurance, and this person is injured or killed during his work on your property, most home owner's policies will not cover such catastrophes. It is important to know what your insurance policy covers. If the family sues, then you could lose everything. The National Home Builders Association recommends getting documentation of contractors' Workers Comp and liability insurance before hiring them.

Neighoring trees

Here is a link that might be useful: Frequently asked questions to help you deal with troublesome trees.

My neighbors tree is dead ,Its about over 3 feet in diameter as high as our 2 story house with an attic, the tree is about 20 feet higher than our house. I asked the neighbor what are they going to do about their tree. They don`t care and they don`t want to know anything. They want everything their way. What is the law to get it cut down before it falls on my house. I live in PA.

Until the tree sets a foot over your property, dead or alive, there's nothing you can do. It's their tree, on their property. It's like asking the police to arrest someone because you think they might commit a crime in future - you can't do that.

henry, get an attorney to send them notice that the tree is a hazzard. if they do nothing about it, then at least when it falls you cna hold them responsible.

you MAY be able to get the city to force them to remove it if it is truly dead. i would send the letter first, then follow up a few days later with the city if they refuse to take action.

This post is 7 years old. Im' sure it has been resolved by now.

joed, the reason folks have responded to a couple of really OLD posts is that people posted new questions in tehm that are from the OP.

If a moving company's large truck/trailer drives down a street that is designated safe for a truck, to deliver household goods to a residence, and a tree is hanging over the road, and it breaks branches off. No one saw it actually happen - they're assuming it was the moving van. Who is responsible?

Question: "If a moving company's large truck/trailer drives down a street that is designated safe for a truck, to deliver household goods to a residence, and a tree is hanging over the road, and it breaks branches off. No one saw it actually happen - they're assuming it was the moving van. Who is responsible?"

ANSWER: Assuming that the truck does not exceed the maximum 13'6" height, the municipality is responsible.

I once drove an 18wheeler down a residential street and unknowingly knocked down two tree limbs, 21 residential telephone lines and 11 cable TV lines.

When I discovered the damage I called the police thinking that some of the lines might have been electric lines and needed immediate attention. You can imagine how nervous I was when the cop pulled up. I just knew I was gonna be charged with the damage and end up paying a fortune in fines and property damage. To make matters even worse, one of the phone lines that I had knocked down was a primary emergency phone line for the neighborhood fire station.

The cop pulled up, got out of his car and walked over and looked at my trailer. He said, "your trailer is clearly marked for 13'6" clearance, but are you sure that is correct when the trailer is hitched to your tractor?"

I told him I was not certain, but I assumed it was correct.

By this time a couple firemen had come over to talk to the cop and heard the discussion. One of them said, thats easy enough to figure out, and they had a small ladder brought over, then one guy climbed the ladder with a tape measure and measured my trailer height. He then called down to the cop and said, it is not 13'6", it's only 13'4-1/2".

The cop then says to me..."Looks line your okay, do you have any damage to your truck?"

I had a few scratches on the trailer, but nothing that was worth making a big deal over so I told the cop, no, I am ok, but what about those wires and tree limbs?

Cop says, "No problem, the law says that all public thoroughfares must have a 14' assured clearance unless there are signs clearly posting a low clearance such as an overpass. Whoever owns the roadway is responsible for maintaining the assured clearance, and the codes say that all electric, phone or cable wires must be a minimum of 15' over a public right of way and 10' over a private driveway, so if you have no damage to report, your good to go."

lazypup - thanks for the response! We did speak to our company attorney yesterday and he said that if we broke no laws (if it was indeed our truck that did this), the overhanging tree branches that are broke off are not our problem. The woman that called us and claimed we were responsible - even though no one saw it - said she was an attorney. I wonder if that was just a ruse.

Well, she may be correct, by your own admission it was perhaps your truck that caused the damage to the tree,

Now let us examine the evidence from your side of the table.
1. The truck is of legal dimension and properly licensed to be operated on a public thoroughfare.
2. The truck was operated in a normal manner by a licensed operator.
3. The limb from her tree projected a hazard into the assured clearance space over a public thoroughfare.

Not only are you not responsible, when all is said and done, you have a good cause of action against her for damage to your truck such as bent, broken or torn sheet metal, broken clearance lights or scratches in your paint and she don't even want to know what it costs to paint a 45' trailer.

Now let us take this discussion to the next step. If she really was an attorney as she claims, she would know full well that she has no cause of action against you and is only attempting to extort a settlement by means of a bluff. That is a breach of ethics and could cause her to be brought up before the Bar Assoc.

On the other hand, if she is only attempting to extort a settlement from you by bluffing and saying she is an attorney, that is another matter entirely. Attorneys are licensed, sworn officers of the court, as are police and law enforcement officers. Impersonating an attorney or member of law enforcement is a felony punishable by up to 5 years in most states.

Now if she really wants to play hardball, then it's on!

Personally I would find out if she is in fact an attorney.

If so, I would tell her point blank that I have discussed the issue with my attorney, and she has no case, but she is welcome to attempt an action in small claims court if she likes, but understand that I will be counter suing for broken lights and a new paint job on the trailer. ( I have yet to see a household trailer that doesn't have a few tree limb scratches in the paint....LOL)

If she is not an attorney, I would invite her to meet with me in the presence of a witness and entice her into telling me she is an attorney, then while she is still standing there I would haul out my cell phone and call the county prosecutors office and tell them I would like to report an individual who is impersonating a lawyer.

@lazypup: Oh yeah!! I like that! Thanks again!

the wind blew down a hydro pole smashing my car - this hydro pole was abandoned and not in use - a new one had been set up - my insurance said an act of god and HYDRO co said they were not responsible - then WHO IS ?

Well the definition of "Act of God" means that no one is responsible. But whether your insurance covers this or not, is a question that only your insurance company can answer (but I assume they've already said they don't cover it?).

I'd look at it the same way as if a branch of a tree broke off and damaged your car. My insurance covers that, I'm surprised yours doesn't. Maybe it's a difference between Canada and the US (I'm in Canada).

Was the car in your driveway? I wonder if your home insurance would cover it.

Took me a minute to figure out what a 'hydro pole' is but since you said "Hydro co." I assume this is a public hydroelectric utility.

What greg is referring to: In the US we have something called 'comprehensive' insurance as part of a car insurance policy. It covers damage not caused by another vehicle ('collision') or by me ('liability'), including flying debris, falling trees and power poles, etc. Comprehensive coverage would take care of this problem.

Comprehensive! That's the word! Is comprehensive insurance optional? I guess I wouldn't ever consider not being fully insured, so it didn't occur to me that someone might only have collision and liability.

Re: Hydro

It's a common term for 'electric power' where I'm from since our electricity is (or was) mainly supplied from hydroelectric power. So I didn't even think twice about what a hydro pole was. I guess it could be really confusing for other people though.

"What the @#$% is a water pole?!?"

Comprehensive insurance is generally not required as it's the vehicle owner's own risk to only his own vehicle, as opposed to liability insurance, which is required in case you hit someone else. I had a vehicle totaled and the insurance paid me off, I kept the vehicle and had it fixed. Insurance co. said it was not worthwhile to carry comprehensive, since if it was severely damaged again and not covered by someone else's insurance - i.e. if it was in a bad hail storm - they would not 'total it out' again since they had already done it once. Minor damage I could cover myself. They didn't refuse to issue comprehensive on it, but the way they explained it, it wasn't worthwhile for me to pay for it. So I deleted the comprehensive on my old truck.