or a significant portion of their tree falls onto your property, who's responsibility is it to clean it up/ pay for damages?

9/7/2010 1:47:48 PM

i guess it depends on whether you're renting or not. we recently had one of our trees fall on a neighbor's house and we just gave them our landlord's information and the tree was cut down a week later without any extra effort on our end.

9/7/2010 1:49:27 PM

If the tree falling is considered an act of God (aka. storm, wind, etc) the clean up is the responsibility of the insurance of the person who owns the damaged property. If the tree falling is the fault of your neighbor (aka. tree trimming, or a dead tree), then it is on your neighbor.

[Edited on September 7, 2010 at 1:57 PM. Reason : Clarify.]

9/7/2010 1:55:40 PM

Quote :

"Did it fall during a storm or was the neighbor trimming the tree and it fell? "

If it fell during the storm and needs to be cleaned up, I think the neighbor should clean it up or pay for it to be cleaned up. If it damaged your property, your insurance should cover it.


If the neighbor was trimming it, he/she should be responsible for cleaning up and any damages.

[Edited on September 7, 2010 at 2:01 PM. Reason : -]

9/7/2010 1:58:19 PM

I live next to a natural common area owned by my neighborhood, and I have emailed them due to a tree encroaching onto my property and physically touching my house, as well as a dead tree that would hit my house if it fell... is it their responsibility to take care of these things?

9/7/2010 2:30:26 PM

The HOA usually contracts that stuff out to a landscape company. Had a problem with a new common area not getting mowed and it was fixed within a week of contacting the HOA.

9/7/2010 3:05:08 PM

^ this is correct. the HOA is responsible for all common areas.

9/7/2010 3:34:08 PM

Quote :

"If the tree falling is considered an act of God (aka. storm, wind, etc) the clean up is the responsibility of the insurance of the person who owns the damaged property. If the tree falling is the fault of your neighbor (aka. tree trimming, or a dead tree), then it is on your neighbor."

This is pretty much spot on. When I lived in Kansas, we had a huge maple tree that lost some large branches during an ice storm. One of which hit a neighbor's house and damaged his gutter. He fixed it and did not complain because he knew it was not my fault as the tree was very much alive.

Then a few months later the neighbor on the other side of us had a dead willow tree nearly fuck up our house when a wind storm took out the tree. I spent about 10 hours cleaning that mess up, but at least the neighbor helped. It ripped our cable line out and did some very minor gutter damage, but it would have been a bad situation if it struck the house directly as that tree had been dead for 2+ years.

My advice to everyone is if you have a dead tree, get it taken down as soon as possible.



[Edited on September 7, 2010 at 5:26 PM. Reason : sd]

9/7/2010 5:25:01 PM

A healthy tree on one of my rental properties fell onto a neighbors house. The tree was healthy with no signs of issues. According to the lawyer I spoke to, it is an act of God, and their insurance pays for it, not mine.

9/7/2010 7:22:00 PM

Quote :

"If the tree falling is considered an act of God (aka. storm, wind, etc) the clean up is the responsibility of the insurance of the person who owns the damaged property. If the tree falling is the fault of your neighbor (aka. tree trimming, or a dead tree), then it is on your neighbor."

winner

9/7/2010 11:03:17 PM