So, I just got a call from my wife...

[solopaddler]

....she arrived home about an hour ago with the kids, and apparantly a huge 80-100' spruce tree in my neighbours backyard was toppled over in a brief but violent thunderstorm and (of course ) fell into our backyard taking out my fence, hedge, part of my cherry tree and a slew of live power lines.

 

My family is currently leaving the premises. Wish I could join them to help out, but I'm at work and can't get away ).

 

To make matters worse the neighbour who I've never met before (we just moved here) says "It's not even my house, It's not my responsibility"

Anyone know if there's any liability involved here? The homeowner? The city?

 

What a freakin' nightmare.

[Joey]

Wow, that's terrible news. Make sure you take pics for us

 

I'll have to ask at work about the insurance side of it. It will probably come down to your homeowners insurance, or the homeowner insurance of the person who actually owns the house the tree was on. They can pay the deductible.

 

Good luck.

 

Joey

[Nanook]

Jeeze, thats not good news at all. I feel for ya.

I'm thinking, if the roots of the tree are on their property, whoever owns the house will be covered by Insurance,..........If they have any

[solopaddler]

Wow, that's terrible news. Make sure you take pics for us

 

Joey

 

HAHA, yeah I'll get right on that

 

I'm over it now. No one was hurt that's the main thing.

[JohnF]

....she arrived home about an hour ago with the kids, and apparantly a huge 80-100' spruce tree in my neighbours backyard was toppled over in a brief but violent thunderstorm and (of course ) fell into our backyard taking out my fence, hedge, part of my cherry tree and a slew of live power lines.

 

My family is currently leaving the premises. Wish I could join them to help out, but I'm at work and can't get away ).

 

To make matters worse the neighbour who I've never met before (we just moved here) says "It's not even my house, It's not my responsibility"

Anyone know if there's any liability involved here? The homeowner? The city?

 

What a freakin' nightmare.

 

Call your own insurance broker. They'll give you advice on who should be doing what. They'll want an adjuster to see it before things get moved around too much.

 

JF

[TennesseeGuy]

Wind damage is a covered peril on a homeowner policy. Seems that your policy would cover the loss with you paying the deductible.

 

Neighbor's liability doesn't enter into the mix unless his tree was dead and should have been removed previously.

 

No injuries to your family members. That's good.

[mikeh]

sounds like he is a tenant or maybe a relative of the owner.

[lunkerbasshunter]

ah that sucks, if i would have known i would have been there today to help you cut the tree up. I was in grimsby most of the day today.

 

Hope it works out and im glad nobody was hurt

[ccmtcanada]

Like you said Mike....everyone is ok...that's the main thing.

 

Still sucks that it happened though! I hope all is worked out and things look a little better in the morning.

[solopaddler]

Thanks guys.

I think T.G. is likely right, but after talking to another neighbour he feels the tree was diseased so maybe I won't have to pay the deductable.

I guess I'll find out tomorrow.

 

In the meantime I'm working the nightshift at the weather office and I've got my own problems right now.

The same storm knocked out my laser ceilometer (measures cloud height).

I tried to fix it, but I think the computer's fried .

I was using balloons to measure the ceiling height earlier, but it's dark now.

Environment Canada tech's won't be able to get to it 'till tomorrow so it'll be an agravating night for me with a lot of p.o.'d pilots and air traffic controllers.

 

When it rains it pours eh? (pun intended )

[Lakeshore]

Yeah same storm rolled through St. Catharines, lots of rain, and wind. Sorry tp hear that your place is damaged.

It's still thundering and raining here as I type. Unusual weather to say the least. Canceled my ball hockey game too.

Work for the weather office solopaddler??

I'm off the Martindale road exit.

 

Best of luck with the insurance claims.

[Almontefisher]

Yeah the owner of the property is responsible for the tree dead or alive so what will happen is you go thru your insurance company and the will subrigate against the other owner. Deductible will be applied by most companies but some don't for things like this. I work with an insurance company and we go through this a lot...Some policies have a small amount that can be used for debris clean up but usually it is lower then the deductible ...Call your agent or broker and tell him the situation. If the guy living next door rents then there is nothing he can or should do as this signifies that they are liable. Now seeing as your fence and other items were destroyed it should be worth the claim but remember that they may surcharge you now due to a claim or some companies will not offer renewal. Now the cherry tree I do not think will be covered.

 

Good luck and keep us posted.

[cranks bait]

This happened to us a couple of years ago. Neighbors HUGE tree fell across our driveway. Claimed it wasn't his responsability. We rent the place and they diod nothing about it. After 3 days of not being able to get my truck out because the driveway was blocked. I went at it with my chainsaw and chucked everything into the neighbors yard. It was a piss off of my time, but at least I got to play with my saw. Not sure what happened after that, except I got out.

 

Glad to hear that everyone is safe. That's the important part.

Edited August 6, 2008 by cranks bait