Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Help-my tree fell in neighbor's yard
Today we had a major storm come through, our power is out, and there are numerous downed trees in our neighborhood. We had a very tall maple tree in our back yard, the top big branches of which fell, some in our yard but most in our neighbor's yard. It took down a section of their fence (we didn't pay for the fence) and is on their porch and in their yard.
I called our home insurance (USAA) who said that unless the branches hit our house, they won't pay for anything on our property. They also said that it is the neighbor who is responsible for the tree, as it was an act of God.
What is the moral/right thing to do in this situation? I have only had one initial conversation with my neighbor to make sure they are alright, and I said I would make some phone calls. USAA says they should call their home owner's insurance and make a claim. Should we offer to pay their deductible? WWYD?
Re: Help-my tree fell in neighbor's yard
We had a large tree branch fall on our neighbors fence last year during a bad storm. Our insurance also said it was their responsibility as it was an act of God. Our neighbor actually rents the house from a guy and her landlord bought a replacement for the broken section of fence. To this day, it's still not fixed. Offering to pay the deductible would be a nice thing to do (or at least maybe split the cost since it wasn't really your fault either).
DS1 born June 2008 | m/c at 9w March 2011 | DS2 born April 2012
Do you live in my neighborhood. Here's what mine looks like tonight:
(Not my house.) If you're in VA, then yes, an act of God is covered under the insurance of the property where the damage occurred from what I understand. I might offer to pay half of the deductible. But I don't think you should feel obligated to either. It's part of the cost of living in a neighborhood with lots of trees.
ETA: I bet they just feel fortunate that it didn't fall on the main part of their house. A lot of neighbors are reporting trees through their houses.
As others have confirmed, this will be covered by your neighbor's insurance.
I wouldn't offer to pay the deductible, and I wouldn't feel bad at all. Your insurance won't pay because you aren't liable for the damage. It isn't your fault that a tree that happens to be on your property fell during a major storm. You couldn't have done anything to prevent it.
I doubt very many people in real life would give their neighbor $500 or more out of the goodness of their heart.
If the tree was a dead tree, I would offer to pay as it should have been taken down before probably. If it was a live one I wouldn't pay or at most pay half the deductible. Don't feel obligated though.
These situations are tough. You know it was your tree that caused the damage, but the insurance company won't allow you to claim it under your own insurance. It stinks, but unfortunately your neighbor will have to file a claim on their own insurance. It's nice of you to offer to pay something, but it really isn't necessary. This is just one of the costs of having a home.
Something similar happen to me a few years, my car was totalled by my neighbor's carport during a hurricane. It literally fell right on top of it and took 6 men to lift it off. It was upsetting as I was still in school and not working full time. I just went ahead and dealt with my insurance for it. It was considered an act of God and it didn't raise my insurance, but I had to pay a pretty chunk of cash for the deductible and depreciation of the car. After the incident, my neighbor avoided me like the plague. This is the only thing that bothered me so offering some assistance to your neighbor to help clean up the yard debris or maybe help put up the fence may be nice and keep things amicable.
Last year a huge limb from a neighbors tree fell into our yard, no damage but the limb was going to be hard to remove. They came over, assured us that they would take care of removal and later that week hired a tree company to come and remove it as well as prune back the tree to make sure it didn't lose anymore limbs.
Were the obligated to do it, probably not. Am I extremely grateful, absolutely. Our neighborhood is very very friendly and one of the reasons I live here. Will I try to pay back the kindness in some way over the years, yes.
All of this.
part of one of our trees fell on a townhouse in the little complex behind our neighborhood. There was no damage but they made a HUGE stink (mostly via post-it notes in our mailbox, it was very weird) and eventually we had to have our insurance write them a letter that our insurance would not be covering acts of God on THEIR property!
Something is fishy.....39 posts and they all read like a mini-blog post.