So sorry your house was damaged. Unfortunately we've had too many such events in our neighborhood recently too.

If the tree is on your neighbor's property and you are concerned it will do damage to your property, you need to notify him in writing with a certified, return receipt requested letter. This way, if your property does get damaged by his tree, then his insurance will be responsible, not yours. Otherwise, the person whose property gets damaged is responsible regardless of where the roots sit. We had to do this with our neighbor who had a dead tree on the property line that was threatening where we often park our cars.

To be sure, contact your insurance company and ask them...they will tell you what they require.

Annie, that is absolutely not the case in my state. When a tree falls and hits a house--- regardless of whose tree it is---the homeowner's insurance company is responsible. Pesky should check her own state laws before assuming she is not at risk for loss in this situation.

However, if a neighbor's tree has a branch that extends over the property line, the homeowner has the right to cut down the limb at the property line. Pesky might want to do that, it would be at her own expense but might be less than the insurance deductible. Before taking that action I would definitely send the neighbor a return/receipt letter informing him that the part of the tree extending past the property line will be cut on such and such a day.

Well, that's why I suggested she check with her insurance company to be sure.

From an article in realty times:
Who is responsible if your neightor’s tree falls on your property? The general rule is that unless the neighbor knew - or should have known - that his tree was unsafe - even if it caused damage to person or your property, he is not responsible. Our courts follow the old common law: it’s your property, so take care of it, unless you can prove your neighbor was negligent.

Thus the need for the certified letter, so you have proof they had knowledge of the hazard and are therefore responsible. But as I said, check with your insurance co. to be sure.

Well, it's happened. A 30 foot long limb broke off his tree in the back yard and hit our hot tub gazebo, knocking it partially off it's foundation. It's leaning and I can see that it's badly damaged. We haven't gone out to see just how bad because the wind has been so bad and the trees on his property are just bouncing up and down. Some are now leaning toward our backyard and it's just a matter of time before they either fall over or snap off. It's too dangerous to go out to inspect that side of our yard right now.

Oh, he's QUITE aware of his dangerous trees. He's got a long history of his trees causing damage to surrounding properties, but he takes the stand that since it's someone elses property that got damaged, it's their problem. But the neighbors have gotten him to pay for the damage-usually it was less than what the deductible would have been.

One of his tree limbs did fall on our common fence and broke a fountain I had in the back yard last year. Because my husband makes fountains, the neighbor basically just shrugged it off when told. I didn't feel like fighting with him about it, but this time-well-I AM going to make a claim with the insurance co.

The tree limbs are extremely long, so even if we cut off the part that overhangs our yard, it's still going to leave 15 feet or more of now denuded limb. They're so high up that you can't reach it from our side-you'd need to climb the tree to cut the hanging limbs. I'm not kidding you-he's got TWINE tied to hold up some limbs, and 2x4's holding up others. This storm broke limbs off some trees, but since they fell in his yard, he's not going to do anything about it. When a very large tree fell in his backyard, he left it there! It didn't hit any neighboring structures, but it was a hazard-so eventually he had to cut it up (after neighbors complained).

I'm calling the insurance co tomorrow-the storm isn't over yet and I figure they're getting swamped and I won't see anyone for a few days anyway.

Check also with a lawyer...insurance coverage can be different than liability. You may be able to recover your deductible by suing him for it (possibly small claims court after advice from a lawyer about whether he could be liable for your deductible). If you have $500 deductible, it might not be worth it, but I know I have $5,000 deductible and I'd want to try to get that back if he was liable for it and you could show he knew that his trees were a potential hazard.

Eta: I meant to say also to check with the lawyer about making his insurance pay for it (if they won't initially), if it was known he had hazardous trees, because every claim YOU make on your insurance raises your rates or increases your risk of cancellation.

This post was edited by olychick on Sun, Sep 29, 13 at 23:37

A long limb by itself is not necessarily a danger, but your description of limbs tied up with twine is confusing---- is his tree dead? If so he should have removed it immediately, and he is at fault. However, in my state my insurance would still be responsible and then they would go after the other guys insurance. He sounds like a nut, btw.

As you know from FaceBook, Pesky, I'm thinking about you. Certainly check your state laws. A tree limb fell on my nieces car while she was babysitting at someone's house. It was deemed 'an act of Nature' and insurance would not pay. If the tree were dead, the owner would have been at fault because dead trees are hazardous.

Anxious to hear what Oregons laws are. Good luck.

Regardless of who's responsible financially, I also suggest that you take good pictures of his trees, especially his tied up trees/limbs, broken limb from his tree, as well as the spot where the limb broke off. You may or may not need them but are good to have just in case.

And if you think that there may be further problems, write down the dates and times of any conversation with him and/or spouse (if there is one).

With all that you now have to do regarding repairs/clean up I know those two things can be a PITA, but IMHO it would be worth it. I say that because about 25 or so years ago we had something similar happen to us. To this day I don't know what made me take pictures and write things down but in the end it was the best thing we did. We had talked repeatedly to one of our neighbors (who didn't get along with anyone in the neighborhood) about his dead and dying trees. We sent a certified letter and kept a copy and the return receipt stating the obvious. Even offered to pay for half the cost of the removal of several of his trees. He ignored everything but became extremely aggressive with my husband every time he saw him. One of his trees finally fell over and took out our fence,hot tub, our back patio, half the garage and all the extensive plantings.

Our insurance paid for everything but the $500 deductible. That said, we gave them all the proof we had of he condition of this neighbor's trees and the insurance company went after him with a venegence. Not only did we get our deductible back, but a small part of what the total cost was for the repairs. Evidently our insurance company got more than what they had had to pay in recovery and sent us the remaining balance.

I don't know if your insurance company could or would do that but as I said, it might be worth it in the long run.

Jenna

I guess he came over to help clean it up after my husband told him what happened. Silence on his end. He did say he`ll start cutting back his trees but i hold out no hooe for that. DH did take lots of pics and i have taken pics of the trees (and his miserable mess of property) before. We`ve tried to get the County to enforce on his mess to little avail. Maybe this will be the impetus, but i dont hold out hope-he`s apparently just going to stack up this wood in his yard to rot rather than letting someone use it for firewood later. So that just means more possums and rodents for us to contend with later.

Good news, tho-our insuranceis ccontracted thru Costco, and they always have a value added service, so i suspect we might get a favorable outcome.

Sorry you are dealing with this, sending good vibes!

:( sorry about your storm damage.

Met with the insurance adjuster today-went MUCH better than I'd feared. We have a property damage claim and a personal property claim, but only one deductible, which is good.

They're going to give us credit for the clean up-PER tree incident! And he was being very, very generous with making calls on damaged items. He asked if the hot tub had been moved as a result of the tree limb fall, because the steps to the HT are a bit off, and he called the gazebo a total loss-I suspect it can be fixed, tho.

The only bad news (if you can call it that) is that the insurance won't pay to have the remainder of the tree cut down. They will give us $500 per tree credit for debris removal, so I think we can get the rest of that tree out for that amount, and we'll just haul the branches and mess off to the composting station.

He said that the insurance co will not be going after our neighbor for the damages caused by his tree because the tree is not dead. However, we do have cause for seeking damages from the neighbor because he knew the tree is a liability (the string tying up branches is a BIG indicator). So we will request from our neighbor half the cost of the deductible-since his tree caused us to make the claim on the personal property.

I guess there was a lot more damage to the roof than we thought-not enough to replace the roof, but definitely a lot to cause it to need to be repaired. We lost a lot of shingles, a skylight got punctured, gutters pulled out of shape and areas of the roof, near the porch line have a big hole and the soffit, fascia and gutters need repaired/replaced. We should get the estimates for what the insurance considers repair costs by the end of the week.

My fountain in the front yard, two large concrete planters and our beautiful yard lamp are damaged-I'm saddest about the lamp-one of the arms got broken and it's not repairable. I love that lamp!! We got it at Costco years ago, but the newest versions have LED, so I suppose it'd be better efficiency. DH can make me a new fountain top and I can get new pots, but the poor squirrels-they don't have their commerce route available any more! They nest in the big tree in our back yard. They'd go down that tree to the roof, cross the roof and use the sweet gum tree to get down in the front yard where we would feed them and they'd get to the fallen bird seed. Now they can't get off the roof! They have to go over the garage, down the drain pipe to the driveway gate, over to neighbors car port to his tree, down his tree, across our driveway and to their peanut gallery. DH said one of them figured out how to climb down the ladder that was leaning against the house, but we can't leave a ladder up! We'll need to figure out a new way for them to get to the front yard. Everyone enjoys them and they're quite tame.

So we did get favorable outcome. I suspect I'm going to be rather shocked at the claim amount, based on what the adjuster was saying. I was worried that it wouldn't be worth making a claim, but just the cost of the hot tub gazebo alone is well worth it. I forgot how much we paid for it back when we got it-but a solid cedar gazebo isn't cheap!

Don't worry about the squirrels...they are quite clever about getting around. I purposely do nothing to attract them to our house...they had gotten into the old house a number of times and the damage they do is incredible.

I just hope the claim won't raise your insurance rates too much...

What Ive heard about this company is that theyre really good about that kind of thing (not rate gouging after a claim) The adjuster told me he`s planning to switch to them after he`d done some homework on them too-anf because of the great deal the partnership with Costco offers.